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Sun, 02 Aug 2015 20:30:25 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Grant Morrison Talks HEAVY METAL and WONDER WOMAN: EARTH ONEhttp://nerdist.com/grant-morrison-heavy-metal-wonder-woman-earth-one-comic-con-2015/
http://nerdist.com/grant-morrison-heavy-metal-wonder-woman-earth-one-comic-con-2015/#commentsWed, 15 Jul 2015 21:00:59 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=277285Scottish writer Grant Morrison has become something of a living legend in his thirty-plus years of writing comics, working on such seminal titles as Batman: Arkham Asylum, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, All-Star Superman, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, Final Crisis, and most recently, Annihilator andMultiversity. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Morrison’s work. Recently, he surprised everyone with the announcement that he would be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of long-running science fiction magazine Heavy Metal. At Comic-Con this past weekend, we got the chance to chat with Morrison on his new gig, as well as some other projects he has coming down the pipeline.

Nerdist: The news this week that you were taking over the editorial reins of Heavy Metal wasn’t something that anyone saw coming; you certainly kept that on the DL as they say. How did this all even come about?

Grant Morrsion: I became friend with Jeff Krelitz a couple of years ago, and we’ve talked about doing stuff for a long time, and Jeff finally said, “Would you like to be the editor? We’d love it if you just came in and did a kind of spring cleaning, and freshen things up and tidy the curtains.” So it was that, and I just thought, “This is kind of insane, and not the sort of thing anyone would expect me to do.” Which alone was almost a good enough reason to do it. Like I’ve said before, the first job I ever got when I was 17, the first professional job I ever got, was for this magazine Near Myths from Scotland, which was just a bunch of hippie kids who tried to put together their own version of a Heavy Metal-style magazine.

So I kind of thought, this was all the stuff I was into at the very start of my career, all the weird sci-fi stuff from the ’70s, Michael Moorcock and J.G. Ballard stuff, and thought wait a minute, this is what got me excited about this kind of stuff in the very first place, Conan the Barbarian and Warren Publishing books like Vampirella. I thought how great it would be to go back to that original aesthetic that started my career, and to see how I could renew that, and build it up again and go back to my roots. So it was one of those things for me, you know how old rock stars get to that point in their career when they make their experimental albums, and then do the one where they go back to their roots? This was like that for me.

N: So you were a fan of Heavy Metal in your youth, but was it something you kept up with all these years?

GM: Not at all. And it’s wrong to say I was even a fan really…we saw them as rivals. And there was no way they were really rivals, they had these fantastic artists from all over Europe, as we were little kids starting out, so of course we weren’t rivals, but they were kind of to us. But I was very aware of Heavy Metal, I loved the artwork, I loved Moebius, but I was never into the stories as much. And I got into Heavy Metal when Richard Corben started doing it and Neverwhere, and I loved his work, so I started buying the magazine for that. But somewhere in the ’80s I kind of dropped out, because it seemed all a little too much Sunset Strip/porno/Motley Crue for me at that point, and I was a punk kid, and that was just not my thing. So I kind of faded away from it around that time, and I was writing my own comics at that point too.

N: Well, with a name like Heavy Metal, you can see why they drew the audience they did at that point.

GM: Exactly! [laughs] They had a right to go there at the time, but that aesthetic just didn’t appeal to me at all at any point, so I just drifted away from the magazine it at that time. So I’m just starting to go back, and go throught it all again and absorb it all, go through all that stuff that I didn’t read earlier.

N: So now that you’re the EIC, are there any specific creators you really want to bring along with you to the magazine? People you think would be a perfect fit?

GM: Yeah, there’s a bunch of people. I definitely want to do something with Frazer Irving again. I just finished Annihilator at Legendary with him, and he has this specific style that is just begging to be in Heavy Metal. And Chris Burnham, who’s already done a story for Heavy Metal, not one of my issues, but we collaborated on Nameless and Batman and I definitely want to work with him on something again. I want to go back to my Near Myths roots and get Bryan Talbot to do something, because Bryan is one of the originator of that style, and he is still working at the peak of his power, so I want to get Bryan in. And then there’s people like Brendan McCarthy. I’m kind of looking for something a bit more psychedelic, but still in the spirit of Heavy Metal. But a bit more trippy.

N: Your book Supergods is one of my favorite things you’ve ever written; I love those kinds of scholarly essays about superheroes and comics, and what they mean to our culture. This was easily one of the best I’ve ever read. Would you consider doing editorial content in the vein of Supergods in Heavy Metal?

GM: Oh, I really want to bring back the editorial content. I think one of the great periods in Heavy Metal was when you had people like William S. Burroughs and Douglas Adams interviewed, and there were music reviews and underground comics reviews as well, so I kind of think that’s an important part of the magazine as well, to have that kind of editorial content; it brings the readers in. Especially now, where we live in a world where the barrier between the creators and the readers has disintegrated. I kind of want that back and forward between the audience and the writer. I don’t think the magazine has really reflected that before.

N: Yeah, the internet has essentially taken the place of the old comic book and magazine letters column.

GM: Even more so, because the internet is almost directing what people want to see, because so many creators are seeing that and reading it, and going, “Well, they didn’t like that, but they loved this,” and we’re seeing the product change because of the demands of the audience. And I think that’s the way of the future, where people use it to speak up and say, “This is what I want.” I don’t neccesarily think that’s great for creative people, but ultimately it’s something interesting to play with.

N: One more thing I need to ask about is the status of Wonder Woman: Earth One for DC, which you are writing and Yanick Paquette is illustrating. She’s easily my favorite character, and I’m dying to see your interpretation of her. What’s the status of that graphic novel?

GM: It’s finished now and it’ll be coming out soon. I sat down and I thought, “I don’t want to do this warrior woman thing.” I can understand why they’re doing it, I get all that, but that’s not what [Wonder Woman creator] William Marston wanted, that’s not what he wanted at all! His original concept for Wonder Woman was an answer to comics that he thought were filled with images of blood-curdling masculinity, and you see the latest shots of Gal Gadot in the costume, and it’s all sword and shield and her snarling at the camera. Marston’s Diana was a doctor, a healer, a scientist. So I went back to those roots and just built it up again.

What would a society of immortal women that’s been around for 7,000 years have done? They wouldn’t still be chopping men’s head’s off; they’ve got art and architecture and philosophy and poetry and it’s got nothing to do with men. So Yanick Paquette did this amazing design job, where there are no phallic objects. The only phallic objects are like these Greek towers that are almost like this haunting echo of the culture they came from.

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane is now shaped like a vagina, it’s the most incredible thing. It opens up in the back and it has a little clitoris hood, everything is a female-based design. It’s all based on shells and natural stuff. He’s created this entire newly designed world for the Amazons. And for the first 48 pages, there are no men — it’s just women talking to each other. And then halfway through the book, we’re building up to this big fight, and then I thought, “No, I’m not.” This book isn’t about fights, there’s not going to be any fights. So we threw out the rules of traditional boy’s adventure fiction. It’s the most exciting book I’ve done in years, it changed everything I’m thinking about the future.

N: All of that is music to my ears. I respect [New 52 Wonder Woman writer] Brian Azzarello as a writer, but hate what he did to the Amazons. He turned Marston’s utopian society of women into people who murder the men they copulate with, then sell the male babies into slavery in trade for weapons. They’re essentially evil barbarians now, and I can’t imagine DC would have allowed the same character assassination to be done to Maand Pa Kent or the Waynes.

GM: Yeah…I mean, you can do the Amazons as a bit strange and aloof, because they could defeat Man’s World if they felt like it, because their science is so advanced. But at the same time their culture is quite frozen, which is why Diana wants to get away and see what else is out there. But that’s how I see it. I think it’ll be quite controversial.

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Which Grant Morrison project are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>http://nerdist.com/grant-morrison-heavy-metal-wonder-woman-earth-one-comic-con-2015/feed/0Comics Relief: SDCC 2015 News Round-Uphttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-sdcc-2015-news-round-up/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-sdcc-2015-news-round-up/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 20:38:43 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=277329With all the big news about comic book-inspired movies and TV series, it’s easy to forget that Comic-Con also had a ton of announcements made from all the major publishers about actual comics themselves, and this year there seemed to be more than usual. In this special post-SDCC 2015 edition of Comics Relief, we’ve collected as many of the major announcements from each of the major publishers for your reading pleasure (minus Image Comics, who made all their big announcements a few days before at Image Expo). So let’s get started, shall we?

DC Comics

Announced late last year was the final part of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight trilogy, which began with the classic The Dark Knight Returns and continued with The Dark Knight Strikes Again. This time around, Miller is returning as writer alongside Brian Azzarello. At SDCC, DC announced that Andy Kubert would be illustrating the book, but that Miller himself would be providing covers and some interior pages. Each issue will come with an extra “mini-comic” focusing on side characters from the story, from various creative teams.

Flash: Earth One and Aquaman: Earth One

DC’s series of Earth One OGNs that tell modern retellings of their iconic characters’ origins will continue, with both Flash: Earth One and Aquaman: Earth One announced for 2016. Writer J. Michael Straczynski will tackle Flash, with Francis Manapul taking on Aquaman on both the writing and art.

Batman ’66/Avengers

No, not those Avengers. Instead, these will be the 1960s British television Avengers, John Steed and Mrs. Peele. The campy crossover doesn’t have a creative team or release date as of yet, but DC did assure fans it would be arriving sometime next year.

Multiversity Too and Batman: Black & White

At Saturday’s Multiversity and Beyond panel with Grant Morrison, the prolific writer announced Multiversity Too, a series of OGNs set in the various new Earths he created for DC’s Multiversity series.

“I’ve always wanted the infinite multiverse of DC to come back,” said Morrison. “The multiverse we set up in 52 had 52 universes and that didn’t seem like enough so we managed via The Multiversity to sneak an infinite multiverse through the back door.”

The first Multiversity Too book will be about The Flash. Morrison also announced a series of Batman: Black and White OGNs as well.

Convergence Spin-Offs

Convergence may be over, but its effects will continue to reverberate thoghout the DC Multiverse. At SDCC, the publisher announced three new series spinning out from the events of Convergence, including Superman: Lois and Clark, a book featuring the pre-Flashpoint versions of the Superman and Lois Lane, and their now 9-year old son Jonathan. Superman: Lois and Clark comes out on October 14, written by Dan Jurgens with art by Lee Weeks, the same creative team behind Convergence: Superman. (Hmmm…books using characters from the old Multiverse?)

Also spinning out of Convergence is Telos, written by Convergence writer Jeff King and drawn by Carl Pagulayan and Jason Paz. Telos features the main villain of Convergence as he travels across time and space, looking for any clues to the mystery surrounding his origin.

Finally, there is Titans Hunt, which seemingly will restore the original Teen Titans characters to the New 52 continuity. Or are they from the pre-Flashpoint DCU? It’s not entirely clear, but that is definitely Donna Troy, Lilith, Aqualad and other classic Teen Titans not seen since the New 52 began. This one is brought to us by the creative team of Dan Abnett and Paulo Siqueira.

Milestone Returns To DC Comics

Earth-M will be an all-new imprint of ongoing comic series and graphic novels featuring characters from Milestone Media, which were all created and published by DC in the early ’90s. Denys Cowan, Reginald Hudlin, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee will all work on unspecified Earth-M comic projects. One of the “blank” worlds in the New 52 DC Multiverse will be given to the Milestone universe.

Justice League: Gods and Men

This will be a series of six one-shot issues that tie-in to the current Darkseid War that is going on right now in the pages of Justice League, each focusing on a different member of the team, and how the conflict on Apokolips affects each leaguer differently.

Batman – Armed with the godlike power of the Mobius Chair, the Dark Knight has taken on the role of Metron and plans to use the infinite knowledge of this device to turn Gotham City into a completely crime-free zone!

Superman – Corrupted by the weird energies of Apokolips’ fire pits, Superman has been turned into an angry, violent brute. And only one man can possibly save him: Lex Luthor.

Green Lantern – Oa has been conquered and transformed into a Parademon factory and the Green Lantern Corps is no more! Only Hal Jordan remains to follow a distress call from the last active Lantern seen fighting on Oa: John Stewart.

Lex Luthor – At last, Lex Luthor, the new ruler of Apokolips, can do what he never could accomplish on Earth: hold the fate of a world in his hands. But his one failure from the “Darkseid War” continues to keep him from the peace he craves – and only a crazed Superman can help him get it!

The Flash – The Flash takes on the role of death’s harbinger, the Black Racer. And the beneficiary of his first visit is Aquaman!

Shazam! – Instead of accessing the powers of the old gods, Billy Batson now commands the combined powers of the New Gods like Highfather, Mantis and others trapped within the Source Wall. And that’s power that no mortal should possess!

Marvel

Spider-Man/Deadpool

How did it take this long for this book to become a reality? Marvel’s two resident wise-crackers will finally share a comic together this year, announced at the Cup O’ Joe panel at SDCC. This new series will by written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by Ed McGuinness. It’s not specified if the new team-up book will be an ongoing or miniseries. No release date was given other than Fall 2015.

Spidey

Ths one will be an all-ages, in-continuity Spider-Man title by Robbie Thompson. The series will be set during Peter Parker’s high school years, and is set to come out in October. It’s meant to be an entry point for younger readers into Spider-Man’s world.

Star Wars: Vader Down and Chewbacca

Marvel announced two more Star Wars books at SDCC, inlcuding one featuring everyone’s favorite Wookiee in an new five issue mini-series in the same vein as Princess Leia and Lando.Chewbacca will be written by Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Phil Noto, and will feature Chewie trapped on a strange planet, helping a young girl in need.

Marvel Comics also announced an upcoming crossover event between the ongoing Star Wars and Darth Vader books called Vader Down. In this story, Darth Vader will be forced to face the entire might of the Rebel Alliance alone, after he crash lands on a planet. The Alliance – including heroes Leia, Han, Luke, and Chewie – decide they cannot pass up the opportunity to rid themselves of their most fearsome foe.

The story will kick off in the oversized Star Wars: Vader Down #1, then continue in the pages of Star Wars and Darth Vader, where the story will be told by ongoing series writers Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen, and artists Mike Deodato and Salvador Larroca.

Blade

Marvel’s first successful cinematic superhero returns to comics in a new series by Tim Seeley and Logan Faerber. The ongoing series will feature Blade teaming up with his teenage daughter, a newly introduced character named Fallon Grey, a popular 16-year-old who learns that she’s Blade’s daughter when supernatural danger finds its way to her rural hometown. (Blade meets Buffy?) Her father Blade will serve as her Watcher Giles mentor. The series will launch in October.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

The first Squirrel Girl series by Erica Henderson and Eric North just launched it seems, but with All-New Marvel in play, it’s getting a chance for an new #1 issue all over again. The comic is a continuation of the current Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series, and will also launch in October.

Dark Horse

Legend of Korra

This is a continuation series to the popular Nickelodeon show, which itself was a follow-up to Avatar: The Last Airbender, will be coming soon andwritten by Korra co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino. Co-creator Bryan Konietzko will consult on art for the series, which is planned to be released as three graphic novels. It will focus on the romantic relationship between the two female lead characters Korra and Asami, which was made official in the season finale.

Twist

What do you do after writing and directing two of the biggest movies of all time? You make a comic about a female Batman in Victorian times, apparently. The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is going back to his role as proponent of strong female characters with this six issue mini-series, due sometime in 2016.

IDW

ROM: SpaceKnight and Micronauts

Good news, Gen-Xers; two popular toy lines that had equally popular comics at Marvel back in the seventies, ROM: Spaceknight and Micronauts, are both getting a new lease on life in comics…just not at Marvel. At SDCC, IDW announced both would be coming out as new series in 2016. No creative teams or a release date were given, just the news that both would arrive in 2016.

G.I. Joe: Cobra World Order

Along with SL Gallant, longtime Marvel G.I. Joe writer Larry Hama returns to the book he helped make a hit, with this new event series. The event will run bi-weekly for eight weeks starting in October.

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Another example of a crossover title I’m shocked took this long to happen, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be co-published by IDW and DC. The book tells the story of what happens when the Turtles and the villainous Shredder get transported to an alternate universe by General Krang. (Does this mean there’s an Earth-TMNT as part of the 52 Earths?) James Tynion IV will write this six part mini-series, with Freddie E. Williams II doing the art. TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman will provide variant covers, as well as other artists associated with both characters.

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Which comic has you most excited? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-sdcc-2015-news-round-up/feed/0BACK TO THE FUTURE Comes to IDWhttp://nerdist.com/back-to-the-future-comes-to-idw/
http://nerdist.com/back-to-the-future-comes-to-idw/#commentsFri, 10 Jul 2015 22:30:06 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=275573Comic-Con is upon us, kids, and with that, a deluge of comics news coming all weekend. But even before we hit Comic News Overload this weekend, there’s still a bit of news to go through in today’s edition of Comics Relief, including the return of a beloved 1980’s property that has thankfully managed to avoid the reboot cycle. Read on for more details…

IDW Announces New Back to the Future Anthology Series

Although thankfully we will never get a Back to the Future reboot as long as original director Robert Zemekis is alive (thank the Gods for your foresight, Mr. Zemekis, for having that in your contract) the world of Marty McFly and Doc Brown is expanding to comics. IDW announced this week that they will be publishing a new Back to the Future anthology comic starting in October, with the subtitle Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines. The series will follow alternate versions of events from the movies, fill in the gaps between them, and offer up prequel stories. The coolest part is that Bob Gale, the co-writer of all three classic movies, will be one of three writers working on the new series.

In a press release, Gale said, “We’ve subtitled this ‘Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines’ because for years, fans have asked questions about things that happened before the events of the trilogy, in between the events of the trilogy, or in our alternate realities. In this series, we’ll finally answer some of those questions, with our focus squarely on the characters everyone loves. In the first tale of the debut issue, we head back to 1982 and witness the very first meeting between Marty McFly and Doc Brown, before their incredible adventures together began. Then in the second chapter, we head back even further to 1943 and see how Doc Brown got himself mixed up in the infamous Manhattan Project!”

All of this sounds awesome, and perfect way to give fans more Back to the Future without rebooting and recasting it with people who probably couldn’t hope to ever fills the shoes of Michael J. Fox and company. [Comics Alliance]

DC’s Latest All Access Video Showcases Every Justice League Member. Even the ones you forgot.

The Justice League of America has had many, many members in their fifty-five-year existence, and now DC Entertainment has compiled all of them, well over a hundred, for this video. Interestingly, when watching this video you see that in their first twenty years of existence, the JLA was a pretty exclusive club, adding only ten members past the original seven founders in that time frame. The League was a tough club to get into, Then Justice League Detroit happened in the mid 80s, and they let in characters like Vibe, and once that happened, the floodgates were open, and all the riff-raff was allowed in. By the mid-90s, who could even keep track. Check out the video below to see all members, in chronological order.

ICYMI: DC Announces Several Mini-Series Featuring Classic Characters

Speaking of DC Comics, in their first big announcement of new titles since the start of their whole new DCYOU initiative began, the publisher announced this week plans to bring back some old favorites in new mini-series, and depending on how readers react to them, possibly as ongoing series down the line. The initial line-up of mini-series includes characters like Firestorm, The Metal Men, Poison Ivy, Metamorpho, Katana, Swamp Thing and the Teen Titan’s Raven, and even fifties kiddie comic Sugar and Spike. For full creative teams on those series, check out our story on the subject right here.

In one of the strangest moves that maybe no one saw coming, Heavy Metal magazine has hired prolific comic book genius Grant Morrison as their new editor-in-chief. The first issue under his tenure as EIC is set for release in February, with Morrison planning to contribute his own comics and prose work to the magazine on top of his editorial duties.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Morrison said, “We’re trying to bring back some of that ’70s punk energy of ‘Heavy Metal,’ but update it and make it new again. One of the things I like to do in my job is revamp properties and really get into the aesthetic of something, dig into the roots of what makes it work, then tinker with the engine and play around with it. So for me, it’s an aesthetic thing first and foremost.” Whatever Morrison ends up doing, it will no doubt be crazy and amazing. [Entertainment Weekly]

Dynamite Entertainment and Atari Join Forces

Dynamite Entertainment has just entered into a collaborative publishing agreement with video game legend Atari,a deal that includes rights for a comprehensive retrospective hardcover book, and also includes the right to create original comics and graphic novels based on classic Atari games like Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command and more, as well as reprint existing comic material, like the 1980’s series Atari Force, which was originally published by DC Comics back in the day.

In a statement from Atari COO Fred Chesnais, he says “We are excited to be teaming up with Dynamite Entertainment to bring a modern twist to a classic series of comics and table top books that are rich with historic art”Atari’s roots in the comic book world and iconic art is a collector and video game enthusiast’s dream. Our partnership is a fun way to expose our brand to a new generation and resonate with our long-time fans.” [Newsarama]

Aftershock Comics Announces Initial Line-Up of Writers

In a bit of pre Comic-Con news, new startup AfterShock Comics has revealed the first group of writers for their fledgling company, and it is quite a roster. Among the initial writers are Preacher creator Garth Ennis, as well as Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex), Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn), Paul Jenkins (Batman: The Dark Knight) Justin Jordan (Superboy, Shadowman), Phil Hester (Ant-­Man), Frank Barbiere (Avengers) and Marguerite Bennett (Batgirl, Sleepy Hollow). The company today also tapped writers for its first short-story anthology including Neil Gaiman, Kim Starlin, Amy Chu, and Brian Stelfreeze.

Former Marvel editor Mike Marts, who announced Aftershock comics earlier this years, said in a statement “When we launched AfterShock, our mission was to attract the best comic book creators in the business, and we’re beyond excited to develop original projects with these industry leaders. But it’s only the beginning.” Expect news on what titles these creators are working on this coming weekend at Comic-Con. [Deadline]

The Super Improbability of Marcus Egan’s Heartbreak Is Latest LGBT Superhero Book That Needs Your Help to Happen

Although LGBT Pride month is now behind us (and what a month it was, am I right?) there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to LGBT representation in comics, especially superhero comics. Now internet personality Neil McNeil is creating a new comic book series The Super Improbability of Marcus Egan’s Heartbreak, along with artist Adam Fay, to give us a book described as “HBO’s Looking and the Scott Pilgrim series had a baby.”

A more detailed description of the series goes something like this: “What happens when your ex meets your one night stand? Or when you find out that they also have a past together? And what if they were once sworn enemies in the current world of Superheroes and Super-villains? Yeah, it’s awkward.” Right now the comic needs your help to come to fruition, and the creators have set up an Indiegogo page so you can help out. You can go to their Indiegogo page here and help contribute.

In a surprise pre-Comic-Con announcement, Morrison revealed his plans to write comics and prose for Heavy Metal, in addition to editing the magazine and recruiting talent from the traditional American comic book industry. Morrison is best known for his work on All-Star Superman, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, and Justice League in addition to his creator-owned books We3, The Filth, and The Invisibles.

“We’re trying to bring back some of that ’70s punk energy of Heavy Metal, but update it and make it new again,” said Morrison. “The idea of immersing myself in the aesthetic of Heavy Metal is exciting. It’s going to change the clothes I wear, the way I create; it’s like a performance for me. Beyond that, just the idea of being able to curate stories, decide the direction of the magazine, and work with great talent and develop new talent is an exciting opportunity.”

Morrison also confirmed that he plans to spend the next year or two focusing his comic output on Heavy Metal. “I want to give my attention over to making something that’s unique and provocative, a bit more scary for people and challenging.”

The first issue of Morrison’s Heavy Metal will hit in February 2016. That issue will also feature the Heavy Metal debut of the late Jack Kirby. The artwork drawn by Kirby for the abandoned adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light will be published in color for the first time. Kirby’s artwork from this project was famously used as part of a CIA plot to smuggle Americans out of Tehran during the Iranian Revolution, as depicted in the movie Argo.

Morrison will also be at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 9 at the Rewriting History: The Next Chapter of Heavy Metal panel in Room 7AB at 3pm alongside Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman and co-CEO Jeff Krelitz as they lay out their plans for Heavy Metal’s future. Morrison is slated to sign autographs on Friday, July 10 at 2pm in a ticketed event at the Heavy Metal booth.

Comic fans, is the addition of Grant Morrison getting you excited for the new era of Heavy Metal? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Marvel Gives Details On 45 All-New Series

Although they’ve been teasing new books for a few weeks now, this week, Marvel really opened the floodgates, and revealed 45 of their upcoming 60 new series that are launching as part of ‘All New, All-Different‘ Marvel this fall, once Secret Wars wraps up.

The biggest changes are in the Avengers line, with the previously announced All-New, All-Different Avengers by Mark Waid and Adam Kubert, featuring a team of mostly new heroes taking the spots of iconic Avengers like Spider-Man, Thor and Ms. Marvel. There’s also New Avengers by Al Ewing, featuring former Young Avengers Hulkling and Wiccan, along with Squirrel Girl, Hawkeye, Songbird and Sunspot. Then there’s Uncanny Avengers from Gerry Duggan and Ryan Stegman, which is comprised of Spidey (the Peter Parker version), old man Steve Rogers, Brother Voodoo, Quicksilver, Rogue, and yes, even Deadpool.

On the mutant side of things, we’ve got Extraordinary X-Men by Jeff Lemire and Humberto Ramos, featuring Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Iceman, Magick, young Jean Grey, and Old Man Logan. A deadlier team of mutants will form in Cullen Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men, which will star Magneto, Mystique, Psylocke, Sabretooth, and Fantomex. All-New X-Men will feature young Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, X-23 Wolverine trading in the school for a VW bus on what looks like a mutant road trip. So much for the rumors the X-Men would be leaving Earth behind.

Of course the big Marvel news surrounds our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, who is becoming a globetrotting corporate CEO, as Peter heads up Parker Industries with his “bodyguard” Spider-Man; meanwhile Miles Morales is picking up the slack for the whole “teen angst” Spider-Man by staying put in New York…even if the New York he’s from is from a totally different universe. You can check out the full scoop on Marvel’s 45 new books by reading our story here.

Rick Remender Leaves Marvel To Focus On Creator-Owned Work

Speaking of Marvel, one writer who has made a name for himself writing mostly for the House of Ideas over the past eight years or so has been Rick Remender, who wrote such incredible runs on titles like Uncanny X-Force and Uncanny Avengers, to focus on creator-owned work. It makes sense given that it was his own creation, Fear Agent, that really propelled Remender to high accolades in the first place.

In a statement on his website, Remender said, “Marvel enabled me to provide for my family as it grew, as my two children appeared into the world, and for that I am indebted and eternally grateful. They offered me their biggest flagship titles, they paid me well, and allowed me to sleep knowing my family could afford a doctor visitshould one be needed, and this was not the case for most of my adult life.”

He added, “Here’s to a year of creator-owned comics.” Although just what those books are going to be remains a mystery for now. [Rick Remender via CBR]

DC Debuts Their New Burbank-based library of over 100,000 comics

DC Comics recently made a huge move from their New York offices, which they’ve kept in Manhattan for over seventy-five years, to Burbank, so as to be closer to their parent company, Warner Brothers. Now DC has uploaded a video that showcases the big move in detail, showing their new library which contains over 100,000 comics, some 95% of the books DC has published since the company’s creation in 1935. There is also all kinds of other material at the library besides comics, including props from DC-inspired movies, TV shows, and more. You can check out the video below. [Hollywood Reporter]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Comes To BOOM! Studios

One of the biggest toy and TV properties of the ’90s was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and as with all things ’90s, it’s making a comeback, starting with the comics world. (Although they never really went away; they are currently on their 22nd season. Who knew?) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers will be returning to comic books via BOOM! Studios. In an agreement with franchise owner Saban Brands, BOOM! will launch the new series which will focus on the ’90s era team.

“We have big, big plans that will build on the core universe of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” said BOOM! Studios editor-in-chief Matt Gagnon. “We can’t give too much away just yet, but the story we’re kicking off with is vast in scope. Fans of BOOM! know we treat the existing properties we collaborate on with a focus on authenticity and quality.”

Next week at Comic-Con, BOOM! will be selling six double-sided, one-page Power Rangers comics by Mairghread Scott and Daniel Bayliss that will be contained in blind bags.

Each comic will focus on one Power Ranger and feature a pin-up image by artist Goni Montes (RoboCop) on one side, and a one-page comic written by Scott and Bayliss on the other side. The six comics are designed to be read as individual parts or can be stitched together to form one full story. [Hollywood Reporter]

Grant Morrison Gives Us the Gritty Origin Story Of…Santa Claus.

Grant Morrison has given us revolutionary takes on Superman, Batman, the X-Men, and just about every major superhero there is. Now he’s going even farther back in time (and further down the pop culture rabbit hole) by giving us the “definitive” origin story for….Santa Claus. Yup, Morrison is teaming up with artist Dan Mora (Hexed) for Klaus, a six-issue miniseries from BOOM!, which is set to debut in November (just in time for the Holiday season). Klaus will give fans the story we didn’t know about in regards to Father Christmas himself.

Klaus is essentially a Santa Claus origin story — Santa: Year One if you will — which reinvents Father Christmas as “a crusader against injustice and a rough-and-tumble, Conan the Barbarian-esque superhero.” The series was inspired by early Viking and Siberian Santa Claus mythology. Apparently the idea came to Morrison when working on All-Star Superman several years ago.

In an interview discussing the book, he said, “I had this notion way back. I was doing the All-Star Superman stuff, and I got so into Superman, so into his character, so involved with what we were doing. When I finished, it occurred to me that I’d really love to do this — with a character that wasn’t owned by a corporation. [Laughs] I thought about, ‘Who does everyone know? Who’s every kid’s favorite hero?’ I suddenly thought, ‘How come no one’s told the ‘Year One’ of Santa Claus?'”

Indeed, this feels like a no-brainer when you really think about it, and I’m glad it’s Morrison who’ll be at the helm of this one. [CBR]

A few years back, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola collaborated with writer Christopher Golden for an illustrated novel called Joe Golem, which was set in a world full of monsters where a sizable portion of Manhattan sank into the ocean back in 1925; this all resulted in a “Drowning City” of skyscrapers rising out of the water, filled with all kinds of unknown dangers. Mignola and Golden are now bringing their pulpy, monstrous detective story to comics; Dark Horse announced this week that the two will be co-writing Joe Golem: Occult Detective, a five-issue miniseries with art and color by Patric Reynolds and Dave Stewart.

According to Dark Horse Comics’ press release, “Joe Golem is full of pulpy goodness, weird alternate history, monsters, and magic and it’s full of insanity you’re not going to find anywhere else.”

Of the comic, Golden said, “We’re telling the story of Joe Golem: Occult Detective, solving mysteries in the flooded streets of mid-20th century lower Manhattan with the ancient Simon Church, who’s keeping himself alive with magic and machinery at the same time he’s keeping Joe in the dark about his own origins. We want to immerse you in Joe’s world, what life is like in the Drowning City, and with issue one, we dive right in.”

The first issue of Joe Golem hits comic shops in November. [Comics Alliance]

Justice League: Gods and Monsters Prequel Series DC Comics’ First Daily Series

We’ve had monthly comics, then weekly comics, and now DC is preparing their first ever daily series, set to tie in to the upcoming Justice League: Gods and Monsters animated film. The comic, which is the first ever DC digital series to debut a new chapter every day, runs from July 1 to July 18 and will have chapters that focus on different characters and their origin stories. J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League 3000) wrote this new series, with artist Thony Silas doing the origin of the Justice League. Rick Leonardi provided art for theWonder Woman chapters, Matthew Dow Smith drew the Batman story, and Moritat featured on Superman chapters. The first chapter is available now. [Newsarama]

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What do you think of today’s top stories? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-marvel-previews-45-new-comics-dcs-big-move-santa-claus-year-one/feed/06 Essential SUPERMAN Stories to Celebrate Superman Dayhttp://nerdist.com/6-essential-superman-stories-to-celebrate-superman-day/
http://nerdist.com/6-essential-superman-stories-to-celebrate-superman-day/#commentsFri, 12 Jun 2015 20:00:08 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=264967There are those who say Superman as a character is too perfect, too boring. He doesn’t have any definitive stories the way that Batman, Spider-Man or the X-Men do. This is, of course, total nonsense. Sure, Superman doesn’t have as many definitive stories as Batman does, but then again, pretty much no superhero character out there does. So on this, the day we celebrate the Man of Steel and everything the character represents, I present to you six essential tales every fan of the Last Son of Krypton should read, and get reacquainted with all the reasons Superman is anything but boring, not to mention the source from which all superhero fiction comes from.

Superman: Peace on Earth by Paul Dini & Alex Ross

So, say you’re an all powerful god-like figure, instead of fighting bad guys all the time, can’t you use all that power to…you know, just fix the world? This is a question every one who reads Superman or has watched him in film or television has asked themselves, and it’s a question the comics usually avoid, because a perfect world doesn’t need a Superman, and there would be no more stories left to tell. The movies tried to address this issue once, sort of, in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, but the less said about that particular gem of a movie the better.

The one comic that successfully dealt with this topic, instead of side stepping it, was Paul Dini and Alex Ross’ Superman: Peace on Earth, which was the first in their oversized series of OGN’s that focused on each of the DC Icons. Superman proposes to the United Nations to help to end world hunger through the gesture of spending a day delivering as much food as he can to countries that need it anywhere on the planet, but even this gesture of goodwill is met with hostility from some governments, who use Superman’s generosity against their own people, and Clark learns the hard lesson that once people rely on you to fix their daily problems, they won’t even try to fix it for themselves.

As good as Paul Dini’s handling of Clark Kent is (and as one of the producers of the excellent Superman: The Animated Series from the ’90s, he’s behind one of Superman’s best ever media interpretations) the real star of this book is artist Alex Ross. No one draws Superman like Ross does, whose photo realistic paintings makes the character come alive better than any artist on the planet. Almost every panel in this book is a thing of beauty worthy of framing, and Ross captures both the mythological grandeur of Superman and the humanity of Clark Kent. Although the book has been out of print for awhile, you can still buy it in the collection of Paul Dini and Alex Ross’ series featuring the DC icons under the title The World’s Greatest Superheroes.

Superman: Brainiac by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank (2008)

The alien android Brainiac has long been Superman’s #2 villain, right behind Lex Luthor, since he was introduced way back in 1958, as a green skinned alien in little pink shorts and white go-go boots. But there have been so many different versions of him over the decades since he was introduced, that they all barely seemed like the same character. Well, writer Geoff Johns took care of that problem in his 2008 run on Action Comics, in a five part story simply titled Brainiac, which explained that all those different versions Supes had encountered over the years are just probes or nanite infected bodies sent from the real Brainiac, a hyper-intelligent, centuries old intelligence who Superman would now encounter for the first time.

The story is note worthy for several major plot developments for the modern version of Superman, including the death of Clark’s adopted father Jonathan Kent, and the return of the Silver Age concept of the Kryptonian bottled city of Kandor, giving Superman a link to his homeworld once again. Artist Gary Frank redesigned the character, giving him a bio-mechanical, creepy HR Giger edge to him, and making him look genuinely off-putting.

This version of Brainiac also has motives similar to the Superman: The Animated Series version of the character, in that he travels the universe and steals the knowledge of different alien cultures, abducting and shrinking cities from each planet as samples, and then destroys the planet so that the value of the destroyed civilization’s knowledge is increased. Brainiac’s ship then travels to Earth and prepares to abduct the city of Metropolis in hopes of doing the same thing to Superman’s adopted world as he did to his birth world. Johns took the original concept of Brainiac, a goofy looking android, and give him all the menace of Star Trek’s the Borg. An animated version of this story, titled Superman: Unbound, was released, and while it’s pretty good and worth checking out, the original comic still trumps it.

Man of Steel by John Byrne (1986)

Back in the early 1980’s, you couldn’t give Superman comics away (or even Batman comics for that matter.) DC was down in the dumps, and with the exception of a couple of hit titles, Marvel was basically wiping the floor with them in terms of sales. This Top 100 comics chart from 1984 says it all- Superman was being outsold by the entire line of Marvel books, even books like Dazzler, and black and white indie books like Cerebus. With rumors spreading that Warner Brothers was going to sell the DC publishing line to Marvel, it was clear that something really drastic had to be done. The drastic action was the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the DC Universe and allowed for fresh takes on classic icons, and Superman’s modern age update came from writer artist John Byrne, then the biggest star in comics. Superman’s whole backstory was then redone in the six issue mini-series Man of Steel.

Byrne’s back to basics approach removed a lot of clutter from the Superman mythology-there were no more multiple survivors of Krypton, no fifty different kinds of Kryptonite, and no more career as Superboy in Smallville. Krypton went from being this Flash Gordon like planet to a stark, monochrome world, where selective breeding had rendered the population cold and heartless. After decades of only caring about getting Superman to fall in love with her and marry her, Lois Lane was restored to the fierce go-getter reporter she’d been in the 1930’s and ’40s. The biggest change was to Lex Luthor; instead of being a genius who was eternally angry that Superman made him lose his hair when they were kids, he was now one of the world’s richest men, the CEO of LexCorp, who has his massive ego crushed by the arrival of Superman, who refuses to be under his payroll, a much better explanation for the deep seeded animosity that Lex had for Superman in previous decades.

And while John Byrne retained the costume, he drew Superman as larger and more muscular than he ever had before, cutting an imposing figure in any group shot. The result was an instant creative and sales success for Superman, and the boost in sales he received remained for the next decade, but the foundation of all that can be found in the Man of Steel mini-series.

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid & Alex Ross (1996)

Ok, I know that technically Kingdom Come is a DC Universe story, but its main focus is on the DC trinity of Batman, Wonder Woman but most especially Superman. Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ now classic story originally came out in 1996 as four part mini-series, which at the time it came out, was a commentary on the state of superhero comics of the day, which were filled with “extreme” heroes, mostly with the words “dark” or “blood” somewhere in their names. Was there room anymore for a superhero as straightforward and traditionally heroic as Superman?

Kingdom Come is set in a not-too-distant future, where a younger generation of superheroes has taken to fighting among themselves, not caring a whit if their actions have consequences on normal civilians. Superman has been retired for a decade at this point, living alone in his Fortress of Solitude, choosing to flee from humanity after the death of Lois Lane. He’s content in his solitude until a horrible incident forces him out of retirement, and the original hero is brought back to remind everyone what being a hero really means. Of course, things don’t exactly go smoothly in that regard.

Writer Mark Waid’s love for Superman shows through in this book, even when he has him making huge mistakes that come at a high price. This comic is perfect for anyone who says that Superman is boring because he’s perfect and never makes mistakes; he makes plenty of them in this book, and many suffer for it, but they come from a place of caring too much, instead of not caring enough. And Alex Ross’ art, as always, is breathtaking, giving us a definitive look for not just Superman, but for most of the DC characters.

Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank (2009/2010)

Superman’s origin story is one which is re-told over and over again, both in comics and in other media, but there’s a good reason for that; it’s a great story, mythological in all the right ways, borrowing from the Old and New Testament, Greek myths, and enough of its own All-American ingredients to make it something totally unique.

In 2009, Geoff Johns decided to follow up his run on Action Comics with Gary Frank by updating Superman’s origin yet again…but this time, he decided to put back most of the toys that John Byrne had taken away in the ’80s reboot of the character, and find a way to take all the Silver Age tropes, which had been deemed too silly in the ’80s and were jettisoned, and put them back into the mix. He found a way to re-introduce the idea of Clark’s career as Superboy, his relationship with the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the fact that he knew Lex Luthor from his Smallville days, and even Krypto the superdog, things that were all deemed to ridiculous for today’s comics, and made them all work within a modern comics context.

Somehow Geoff Johns made it not only not seem silly, but made you wonder why some of it was taken away in the first place, no matter how great (and needed) John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot was. His versions of the main characters are the right mix of classic and modern, taking from not only the comics and but the more well known media incarnations as well (Gary Frank’s Superman is a dead ringer for Christopher Reeve, and a lot of Clark’s Smallville years were clearly inspired by the TV show of the same name.) Within one year, this version of Superman’s origin would be erased by the New 52 version, but luckily you can still read this story in several collection editions.

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

If you were asked to take one comic book that defines a character, and have that book represent everything that character represents, what would it be? In the case of Batman, most would say Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns or Batman: Year One. But in the case of Superman, the popular consensus is Grant Morrsion and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman. Originally told over the course of twelve issues and two years, All-Star Superman tells the epic story of Superman’s imminent death, after he gets poisoned by intense solar radiation when saving the lives of several scientists in space and getting too close to the sun. He attempts to prepare for his end while accomplishing the 12 great feats he’s told he must accomplish before his time runs out.

Morrison manages to cover the depth and scope of Superman’s entire publishing history in one epic story; not being tied to any one continuity, Morrison takes from every era of the Man of Steel’s adventures, and pays proper homage to them all. He nails Clark’s relationship to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor and both of his fathers, Jor-El and Jonathan Kent. He even manages to give Superman one last, poignant day with Krypto. But maybe the best moment in the whole book comes when Superman saves a suicidal woman from jumping off a building, reminding us all just what the character is meant to represent. All-Star Superman isn’t just a great Superman comic, it’s one of the finest comic books ever made, period.

]]>http://nerdist.com/6-essential-superman-stories-to-celebrate-superman-day/feed/0Comics Relief: DC Celebrates 75 Years Of THE JOKER, Marvel’s Latest SECRET WARS One Shots, & Morehttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-joker-marvels-latest-secret-wars-one-shots-more/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-joker-marvels-latest-secret-wars-one-shots-more/#commentsSat, 02 May 2015 20:00:29 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=249192It’s a big weekend for comics fans, with Free Comic Book Day upon us and a little movie called Avengers: Age of Ultron hitting theaters. But before you do all that, read up on some of the comics news you might have missed from the week that was in in the weekend edition of Comics Relief!

Writer Gerry Conway is a longtime veteran of the comics industry, having created dozens of characters for both Marvel and DC, including the Punisher, Firestorm, Power Girl and many, many others. Among the characters he created were Killer Frost, whose (current) alter ego is Caitlin Snow; Vibe, who’s secret ID is Cisco Ramone; and Felicity Smoak, all three characters currently being used on the hit CW shows The Flash and Arrow.

Recently on Conway’s Tumblr, he posted this question: “Who created Caitlin Snow, the alter ego of Firestorm super-villain Killer Frost, who appears regularly on The Flash? According to DC Entertainment, nobody.” Apparently, there is a loophole at DC over paying comic book creators whose creations get used in other media, known as “creator equity participation” until recently, when new DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson changed the policy so no derivative characters are payed for. So Conway gets no royalties for Power Girl for example, because she is derivative of Supergirl, and not her “own” character (despite having a different costume and even civilian name.)

So technically, Conway, who created the original Killer Frost, should be getting payments for the use of Caitlin Snow, right? But he’s not (and he’s totally ok with that) because he feels that writer Sterling Gates, who introduced Caitlin a couple of years ago as the new Killer Frost, should get that money. But he’s not, because it’s a derivative character. But Conway isn’t getting paid for it either, so…apparently, no one created Caitlin Snow at DC it seems. And that’s just SHADY. [Gerry Conway’s Tumblr]

Humble Bundle Offers Deal For Comics Aimed At Younger Readers

It’s said, for people to become lifelong comics fans, they need to get bitten by the comics bug early, when they’re young kids. Well, Humble Bundle are making it very easy right now to get a ton of comics for younger readers into their hands; for the next two weeks, they’re offering up a a large amount of younger reader titles on their usual pay-what-you want system, including comics from publishers like Archie, Dark Horse, and Image, including an amazing full-color Usagi Yojimbo original graphic novel by Stan Sakai. For more on this offer, click here. [Comics Alliance]

Iceman’s Coming Out Issue Already Skyrocketing In Price

Nothing pushes-up back issue sales like a little controversy, especially the kind that gets you mainstream attention, like the X-Men’s Iceman coming out as gay recently in issue #40 of All-New X-Men. Well, just a week old, and that issue has already skyrocketed on the back issue market. All-New X-Men #4 has already sold two for $12.95 on eBay, less than a week since it was published for $3.99. Will it go up even further? Time will tell, but this proves back issue’s biggest friend is mainstream media attention. [Bleeding Cool]

DC Celebrates 75 Years of The Joker

He’s The Clown Prince of Crime, The Harlequin of Hate, the Batman’s biggest foe, and maybe even the greatest villain in all of comics. The Joker first appeared seventy five years ago this week in Batman #1. To celebrate, DC giving away a pretty hefty Joker-centric prize-pack, and among the prizes are the Batman: Arkham Origins Collector’s Edition (for Xbox), the Batman: Death of the Family Book and Joker Mask Set, some smile-worthy Joker collectibles from DC Collectibles and more. This giveaway ends on May 22. You can enter by clicking on this link

Marvel’s #1 Duck Gets A Species Makeover: Say Hello To Howard The Human

At last weekend’s C2E2 in Chicago, Marvel Comics announced Howard The Human #1, a Secret Wars one-shot written by Skottie Young. Yes, that’s right, the former duck is now a man. The story will find Howard changed from a duck into a regular human being, and he’ll be the only human in a city filled with animals. Although this is a Secret Wars tie-in, don’t expect too much Secret Warsy-ness in this one.

According to Young, “I don’t want to ruin the story, but there’s nothing really to ruin. It’s Secret Wars in the way that Secret Wars is giving us the chance to tell a lot of big stories that are very integral to the main crux of it all. Then we’re also getting to tell a lot of tales within this world. Howard the Human is one of those stories where there’s a part of this world that exists, and it doesn’t know anything else but what it is. That’s about as Secret Wars as this one gets for me.” Howard The Human #1 hits comics shops this August. [Comic Book]

Secret Wars Will Introduce Us To Hank: Agent of HYDRA

Howard the Human wasn’t the only oddball one-shot being announced at C2E2; Marvel Comics has also announced Hank Johnson, Agent of Hydra #1, an upcoming Secret Wars One-Shot. According to Marvel’s description, in this story “Hank must navigate through the perilous dangers of picking up his kids from school, reporting to Hydra’s HR department, and longing for a more meaningful life. But hey, since it is kind of re-writing all of existence, maybe he’ll get his wish. Delivering the civilian shenanigans are former Curb Your Enthusiasm executive producer David Mandel on writing duties, and illustrator Michael Walsh on art. [Digital Spy]

Legendary Comics Collects Grant Morrison’s Annihilator

Coming off his two Eisner Award nominations for his work on Legendary Comics’ Annihilator and DC Comics’ Multiversity, Legendary Comics has officially announced that writer Grant Morrison‘s six issue Annihilator will be available in hardcover this summer. The critically-acclaimed series was written by Morrison with artwork from Frazer Irving (Batman and Robin, Judge Dredd, Necronauts).

According to the official synopsis, Annihilator is described as “an original graphic novel odyssey directly from Morrison’s subversive mind, the reality-bending sci-fi adventure like not other tells the story of washed-up Hollywood screenwriter Ray Spass who is caught in a downward spiral of broken relationships, wild parties and self-destruction. Out of luck and out of chances, he’s one failed script away from fading into obscurity. Little does he know he’s about to write the story of his life. As his imagination runs rampant, Ray must join forces with his own fictional character Max Nomax on a reality-bending race to stop the entire universe from imploding… without blowing his own mind in the process.” The new collection hits this August. [Bleeding Cool]

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Excited about Annihilator, or any of the news items in this week’s Comics Relief? Let us know in the comments below!

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-joker-marvels-latest-secret-wars-one-shots-more/feed/0Comics Relief: The MINIONS Come To Comics, Grant Morrison’s WONDER WOMAN: EARTH ONE Gets A Release Date, Plus More CONVERGENCE & SECRET WARS Newshttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-the-minions-come-to-comics-grant-morrisons-wonder-woman-earth-one-gets-a-release-date-plus-more-convergence-secret-wars-news/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-the-minions-come-to-comics-grant-morrisons-wonder-woman-earth-one-gets-a-release-date-plus-more-convergence-secret-wars-news/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2015 01:30:31 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=237646Welcome to this week’s Comics Relief! Both DC and Marvel’s big 2015 events, Convergence and Secret Wars, are nearly upon us, but we’ve still got bits of news breaking about each of those series, as well news on Dark Horse Comics‘ new creator owned titles coming throughout the rest of the year, and much more.

Universal’s Animated Minions To Get Their Own Comic Series Via Titan Comics

Tying in with the July 10th release of the Minions movie, animators Didier Ah-koon and Renaud Collin will bring those little yellow hench-creatures to comics in a deal with UK publisher Titan that will see the release of four comic book issues, two digest collections, two hardcover editions and a paperback collection. The line will launch on June 17 with the release of the first issue of the Minions comic book digitally and in comic book stores, as well as the first digest collection in bookstores. It’ll be interesting to see how the Minions, characters who mostly work as physical comedy and sound effects, translates to the comics page. Then again Looney Tunes is much the same, and there have been comics about those characters for years, so what do I know. [Hollywood Reporter]

Writer Jeff King Drops Hints About Post-Convergence DC Multiverse

DC Comics’ much hyped Convergence #0 hits today, starting a two month story meant to give “closure” to the pre-Flashpoint continuity replaced by the New 52 back in 2011, not to mention dozens of other timelines which have been long gone well before that. But is Convergence really the end for all these all worlds, or just a new beginning?

A recent interview with series writer Jeff King suggests otherwise, where he states, “Because (Crisis on Infinite Earths) blew everything up, Convergence is bringing everything back together — everything that was continuity or canon will exist again, and it’ll be a resource for every writer who follows us in Convergence to use and go back to if they want to tell those characters’ stories.” This seems to suggest that for old school fans (like yours truly) the old worlds we grew up with might yet have some kind of future in DC. Only time will tell what kind of future that is. [USA Today]

Despite What You May Have Read, Marvel’s Secret Wars Is NOT A Reboot

Well, it’s not a reboot in the strictest sense anyway. On a panel at this past weekend’s Emerald City Comic Con, Marvel’s CB Cebulski went on the record saying that what Marvel readers are going to be getting post-Secret Wars is “not going to be a reboot, not going to be a revamp, not like everything’s changing” At the same panel, Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick added in her own two cents about Marvel’s continuity and the whole reboot rumor mill, saying “this is the longest running continuing narrative in human history” and it is not to be done away with. So relax all you old timer Marvel fans…none of your old issues are going to be invalidated. Except maybe the one where the Avengers show up on David Letterman, or Spidey fights the Transformers. [Bleeding Cool]

Dark Horse Set To Publish Planetes Omnibus Edition

Coming this December, Dark Horse will release Makoto Yukimura’s sci-fi manga Planetes, formerly published by Tokyopop, in a new omnibus format. The series centers on the crew of the Toy Box, orbital debris collectors tasked with capturing and then disposing of any space trash, from screws to old satellites, that could possibly damage or destroy space stations and spacecraft. (Think what happened to poor Sandra Bullock in that one scene in Gravity.) According to Dark Horse editor Brendan Wright “I was saddened to think it might fade from American comics shops after Tokyopop’s demise, so it’s a joy and an honor to reintroduce it at Dark Horse in the edition I’d want as a fan, with superior source materials and all the color pages included.” The Planetes omnibus edition is scheduled to arrive Dec. 22 [Comic Book Resources]

It was announced several years ago now, but it looks like Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette’s Wonder Woman: Earth One OGN has finally been scheduled for November of this year. Originally titled “The Trial of Diana Prince”, Morrison’s new take on the origins of Wonder Woman is looking to go back to the original feminist intent of creator William Marston, so expect a more modern take on Marston’s ideas about Amazonian feminism, and plenty of references to the original creators’ penchant for kink and bondage.

But Morrison isn’t the only high profile creator getting a crack at Wonder Woman; Jill Thompson’s Wonder Woman: The Very Selfish Princess, a storybook style re-imagining of the early years of Princess Diana, as as fully painted graphic novel. When young Diana has the fawning attention of a nation, she soon grows spoiled. But a series of tragic events take their toll, and Diana must learn to grow up, take responsibility, and seize her destiny. Wonder Woman: The Very Selfish Princess is set to debut in September. [Bleeding Cool]

Dark Horse Announces Several New Creator Owned Series At Emerald City Comic Con

This past weekend at Emerald City Comic Con, Dark Horse Comics took the opportunity to announce a ton of new series by several well known and respected creators, including the likes of Mark Millar and Aaron Lopresti.

Zodiac Starforce is a webcomic-turned four-part miniseries, featuring an all-girl super team, brought to you by Kevin Panetta and Paulina Ganucheau for an all-ages adventure. Issue #1 will be out in August.

The Tomorrows from writer Curt Pires, is a story set in a dystopian future where our openness on social media has been turned against us, the rich have gotten richer and everybody else has gotten poorer, and the political system runs completely through the hands of super-corporations. (By “future” do they mean 2016?) Each issue will have a different artist, starting with Jason Copland, Alexis Ziritt, and Ian McEwan. Issue #1 is scheduled for July.

The Steam Man by Mark Miller and Joe R. Lansdale with art by Piotr Kowalski, is a maniac take on the Wild West about steam-powered robots that fight vampires, martians, evil monkeys and monster hunters, all while wearing a top hot. Issue #1 will be out in October.

Power Cubed comes from writer/artist Aaron Lopresti. The series tells the story of eighteen-year-old Kenny, whose father gives him a device that allows him to reinterpret the Universe around him. Anything and everything can happen whenever Kenny wants, which leads to both good and maybe not-so-good things. This, like Zodiac Force, is an all ages book, and looks to hit in September.

And that was just a sample of what Dark Horse has in store for 2015. Check out our gallery showcasing the covers for the first issues of each of these series below, and to learn more of what else Dark Horse has cooking for the rest of 2015, hit the following link: [Comics Alliance]

The House of M and Siege Latest Events To Return for Secret Wars

In the latest (last?) reveals for Secret Wars‘ Battleworld, Marvel has announced that the 2005 mini-series House of M, which featured a world created by the Scarlet Witch where her father Magneto (well, the man that she thought was her father) ruled the world, with mutants as celebrities and royalty, and humans nothing more than the lowest caste. The new Secret Wars series will pick up that reality as if it had never been disrupted and returned to the normal Marvel U, brought to you by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Kris Anka.

Not all the stories and older events coming back for Marvel’s Secret Wars are classics, or even that beloved. Case in point, the 2011 event Siege, which is coming back, although it seems greatly altered from its original incarnation. The new series, written by Kieron Gillen, is said by the author to be more inspired by Game of Thrones than by the original series. Siege will be illustrated by Captain Marvel’s Filipe Andrade, as well as “guest artists” including James Stokoe. Marvel has not said the length of the series or when it will debut. [Los Angeles Times / Newsarama]

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Got opinions about the news you’ve read in this week’s Comics Relief? Let us know in the comments below!

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-the-minions-come-to-comics-grant-morrisons-wonder-woman-earth-one-gets-a-release-date-plus-more-convergence-secret-wars-news/feed/0Comics Relief: DC Celebrates 75 Years of THE FLASH, IDW Debuts THE MISFITS, & More SECRET WARS Newshttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-flash-idw-debuts-the-misfits-more-secret-wars-news/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-flash-idw-debuts-the-misfits-more-secret-wars-news/#commentsSat, 07 Mar 2015 02:30:07 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=230366It’s time for the weekend edition of Comics Relief fangirls and fanboys, and as usual, we’ve got several Secret Wars related announcements from Marvel. But that’s not all! We also have news on how you can help launch a pretty cool comic book anthology for and about women in gaming. But first, DC Comics begins their year of celebrating the Legacy of the Scarlet Speedster with this pretty nifty video tribute….

DC Celebrates 75 Years Of The Flash

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Jay Garrick, the original Flash, and DC Comics has begun their celebration of all the Scarlet Speedsters by releasing this tribute video, which shows a Flash for each of the 75 years he’s been in publication. DC promises more “Flashiversary” comics and collected editions for the rest of 2015 (as if having a hit TV show wasn’t enough) so this promises to be a good year for fans of Barry, Wally and Jay. Check out the video below:

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men Return As Part of Secret Wars

Grant Morrison’s early 2000s-era X-Men are returning to the Marvel Universe thanks to Secret Wars(what else) although they won’t actually be bringing Morrison along with them. Instead, artist-turned-writer Chris Burnham will be writing E Is For Extinction, which was the name of the first Grant Morrison storyline from New X-Men back in 2001.

Illustrated by Ramon Villalobos,The series will feature the Morrison-era mutants in an area of Battleworld where mutants are loved and admired instead of feared and hated, similar to how things were played during Grant Morrison’s run. Expect to see certain characters from Morrison’s run play a big part, like Angel Salvadore and Beak. Although not involved with the book himself, Morrison did give Burnham his stamp of approval on the whole thing. “I definitely made sure to get his blessings first and he thought it was cool,” Burnham says. “He doesn’t own the characters but if I thought it was going to piss him off, I would’ve bowed out. He thought it sounded neat. He told me to go for it. He also gave me a couple ideas he thought I should use.” [Comic Vine]

Meet The Misfits Of IDW’s Upcoming Jem Series

While the upcoming Jem and the Holograms live-action movie doesn’t seem to be borrowing one of the cartoon’s most important elements, Jem’s rival band, the Misfits, the new comic book series from IDW knows better than to leave that important element out. The original characters have been updated for modern times though, with added elements like the fact that Pizzazz was in child beauty pageants singing country songs as a kid (no wonder she ends up being evil). Another welcome new element is the fact that the group is now racially diverse, as well as diverse in different body types, with Stormer now a plus-size girl. Check out the profiles for all for members at the following link: [Comics Alliance]

This Batman Themed Hotel Room Is A Real Thing

If you’re a Batman fanatic, and happen to find yourself in Southeast Asia, you might want to check out this Batman-themed hotel room in Taiwan. The room has a Batcave like ceiling, pictures of various Batmen (bot mostly Christian Bale) and Tumbler-shaped seating area and a giant bat signal behind the bed. In fact, there are bat-symbols everywhere, probably even in the bathroom. The rooms at the Eden Motel are meant to be booked by the hour,so I guess that’s the “millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne” part of the room, if ya know what I mean. [Nerdist]

These ’80s Style Action Figure Variant Covers Are The Best Thing Announced So Far For Secret Wars

There have been a metric ton of announcements from Marvel regarding the upcoming Secret Wars event, but as far as I’m concerned, this is the maybe the coolest one so far: Marvel is celebrating the new version of Secret Wars by paying homage to the 1984 original series, which included a popular line of action figures, with a series of variant covers.

The variants will be featured on 17 covers total from artist John Tyler Christopher, including all eight issues of the main Secret Wars series by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic. These eight covers will feature characters from the original 1980s toy line. Nine other tie-in series will have action figure variants for their debut issues, and these variants will depict modern characters done in the style of the 1985 action figure line. Below are the covers for Secret Wars #1, Secret Wars: Battleworld #1, and Secret Wars: Journal #1. [Comic Book Resources]

Help Support Chainmail Bikini, A Comics Anthology For & About Women Gamers

For all you female gamers out there who love comics as well, there’s an anthology collection coming soon of comics by and about female gamers called Chainmail Bikini, but it needs your support to happen. As described on their Kickstarter page, some 40 cartoonists have contributed 200+ pages of all new stories about the games they’re passionate about, from video games to tabletop role-playing games to collectible card games.

Chainmail Bikini is described as “exploring the real-life impact of entering a fantasy world, how games can connect us with each other and teach us about ourselves. We believe that gaming should be open to all, regardless of gender. Chainmail Bikini shows that while women are not always the target market for gaming, they are a vital and thoroughly engaged part of it, and are eager to express their personal take as players, makers, and critics of games.” To learn more, go their Kickstarter page here. [Bleeding Cool]

Jason Aaron Brings Channels ’70s Fantasy Epics For Weirdworld

Thought were done with Secret Wars announcements this week? Not so fast, we’ve got one more, and it’s pretty weird. Writer Jason Aaron is bringing back some of the stranger parts of the Marvel Universe thanks to Secret Wars, with the appropriately titled Weirdworld. According to Jason Aaron, this part of Battleworld is “basically a hodgepodge of the weirdest, strangest, more obscure bits and bobs of the Marvel Universe.” The main character of the series is Arkon, an ancient warlord type who rules the kingdom Polemachus. Arkon is known mostly to Marvel fans as a villain who has fought the Avengers, X-Men and the Fantastic Four on various occasions. Now he’ll have his own Lord of the Rings-style fantasy domain as part of Battleworld. The book launches June 3 with art and covers by Michael Del Mundo.

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Excited about all these crazy Marvel announcements, or do you already miss the old Marvel Universe? Chime in on this or any other news item in the comments below!

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-dc-celebrates-75-years-of-the-flash-idw-debuts-the-misfits-more-secret-wars-news/feed/0Holiday Gift Guide 2014: The Comic Book Collectorhttp://nerdist.com/holiday-gift-guide-2014-the-comic-book-collector/
http://nerdist.com/holiday-gift-guide-2014-the-comic-book-collector/#commentsWed, 26 Nov 2014 20:00:01 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=203063Sweet mother of Mxyzptlk! Black Friday may be right around the corner, looming like a spectre on the horizon of Thanksgiving Thursday, but first we have to make it through Comic Book Wednesday, and by “make it through,” I mean “escape this glorious day with our wallets intact.” Still, if you’re going to be heading to your local comic book shop this week anyway, you may as well kill two birds with one stone by picking up some choice cuts for your pull list and taking care of some holiday shopping for the comic book fan in your life at the same time. But you’re not Batman (are you?) — you don’t already have a contingency plan for each and every person in your life. Fortunately, we do and we’ve been using Brother Eye to geo-locate the perfect gifts for you and yours this holiday season.

Batman: Arkham Asylum 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition hardcover: It’s hard to believe that Gotham’s Dark Knight turned seventy-five years old this year — ol’ Brucey Boy barely looks a day over thirty. With ten different Bat-books in DC Comics’ current lineup, it can be difficult to tell where to start for diehard Bat-fans, especially since DC is rolling out scores of awesome Batman comics. Although it’s widely considered a classic in the modern canon, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum is a no-brainer. The beautiful, hardcover 25th anniversary deluxe edition is the best way to experience the harrowing tale of what happens when the inmates of Arkham Asylum take control of the infamous center for the criminally insane. Forced to face his worst enemies and his inner demons, Batman is put through the ringer in this seminal story. Be a hero to your friends and family by making sure this winds up in their stocking.

Marvel Vehicles: Owner’s Workshop Manual: Apart from the sprawling soap opera storylines, larger-than-life villains, and colorful cast of heroes, one of the coolest elements of the Marvel Universe is the awesome arsenal of vehicles. Over the years, we’ve seen heroes tool around in Helicarriers, spaceships, motorcycles, and even cherry red flying convertibles. Now, thanks to Insight Editions, they’re collected in one convenient hardcover book with blueprints, detailed annotated histories, and commentary from author/master Marvel mechanic Alex Irvine. At long last, you can settle the bet of whether or not the Punisher’s van has a Hemi.

Elizabeth Rose Star Wars comic book shoes: If the shoe fits, wear it. If the shoe happens to be a pair of super comfortable custom Toms wrapped in vintage Marvel Star Wars comics covers, then do unspeakable things to wear them. Many Bothans died to bring you this information, so make sure the Star Wars fan in your life makes their way to Etsy’s Elizabeth Rose Shoes so their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Plus most places require you to have shoes to enter the premises, so you may as well step out in style.

BOOM! Studios 2014 Original Series Bundle: While it’s easy to point to companies like Image Comics as a bastion of creator-owned comics, BOOM! Studios has been quietly killing it with compelling, well-crafted, wonderfully inventive original series. Now, they’re helping you bring yourself up to speed with a a 5-volume digital comics bundle that collects the first trade paperback volumes of The Woods, Dead Letters, Day Men, Hit: 1955, and Six-Gun Gorilla for $54.99. The only thing missing from this awesome assembly is their seriously slept-on horror comic Curse — but with all the money you save on the Original Series Bundle, you won’t have any excuse not to grab just one more…

Batman: The Animated Series – Wave One Action Figures: Sure, sure, technically Batman: The Animated Series is a TV show and these figures might be better suited for our TV lovers’ gift guide, but Batman was a comic book hero first and these are too rad not to share. These 1/12th, six-inch scale figures were designed using the original character lineup sheets employed by the animators and pack in a surprising amount of detail. For example, Batman not only looks that damn good, but he has 24 points of articulation. Retailing for $24.95 apiece, the first wave includes Batman, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and Catwoman, and there’s plenty more on the way. C’mon — you know you need something to do with your hands while you read Batman: Reanimated.

Marvel Unlimited subscription: Did all the announcements of Marvel’s Phase III with characters like Black Panther, Captain Marvel, the Infinity War, and the Inhumans have your head spinning? Well, you’ve got plenty of time to read up on the source material and you won’t even need a whole other wing to your house to store all those individual issues. For $9.99 a month, a Marvel Unlimited subscription gives you access to more than 15,000 comics — both new and old — at the touch of a button on your iOS and Android-enabled devices. For fans that want a bit more, the Unlimited Plus membership gives you an exclusive Rocket Raccoon figure, limited edition variants of Skottie Young’s Rocket Raccoon comic, discounts on digital comics and Marvel merchandise, and more.

Saga Book One hardcover: It’s no small secret that I am a rabid Brian K. Vaughan fan, but when you pair the Y: The Last Man writer with artist Fiona Staples, something magical happens: Image Comics’ Saga. Wildly inventive, laugh-out-loud funny, and poignant, Saga tells the story of Hazel, a child born amidst an intergalactic war to two parents from opposing factions, and her parents’ quest to provide her with a better life. This new hardcover collection contains the first 18 issues, which is over 500 jaw-droppingly good pages of space opera goodness. Go ahead and tell me you don’t want this bad boy. I’ll get Lying Cat out here to call you on your malarkey before you can say “Prince Robot IV.”

Serenity: Leaves on the Wind hardcover: While Firefly may have come and gone, leaving scores of Browncoats at cons across the land to hope against all hope for its return, it is not forgotten. In fact, it lies on over at Dark Horse Comics in the form of the excellent Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, written by Zack Whedon and illustrated by Georges Jeanty. A follow-up to the vents of Serenity, Leaves on the Wind finds the crew coming out of hiding after exposing the Alliance’s sinister plans in order to rescue a captured comrade. This hardcover collection brings together all six issues of the mini-series and will fill that Nathan Fillion-shaped hole in your heart in no time flat.

All You Need is Kill Omnibus: In case you didn’t see this summer’s Edge of Tomorrow, it’s okay; I don’t blame you, especially considering how many times they renamed the damn thing. However, before it was a Tom Cruise-starring, Emily Blunt yoga vehicle, Edge of Tomorrow was based on a light novel called All You Need is Kill. Now, that novel is adapted into a a 500-plus page omnibus manga adaptation courtesy of Viz Media. With a compelling twist on standard sci-fi/war movie tropes, All You Need is Kill offers a harrowing look at the horror of war and the lengths to which one man will have to go in order to save the day.

Ant Colony hardcover: Earlier this year, cartoonist Michael DeForge penned one of the single best books I have read all year. Ant Colony is a darkly existential, ferociously funny, and exceedingly charismatic story about the day-to-day lives of ants living in an ant colony. Playing out like Tao Lin’s version of Antz, DeForge’s book takes us inside the inescapable ennui and malaise of being a drone in a massive ant colony, but also taps into issues of identity, race, and war in intensely relatable ways that make this an essential read for any comic book fan.

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What else is on your list this year? Let us know in the comments below or tell me on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

]]>http://nerdist.com/holiday-gift-guide-2014-the-comic-book-collector/feed/3Comics Relief: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Get Another Ongoing Comic, Grant Morrison & Jim Lee Collaborate on MULTIVERSITY, And ORPHAN BLACK Comes To IDWhttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-guardians-of-the-galaxy-get-another-ongoing-comic-grant-morrison-jim-lee-collaborate-on-multiversity-and-orphan-black-comes-to-idw/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-guardians-of-the-galaxy-get-another-ongoing-comic-grant-morrison-jim-lee-collaborate-on-multiversity-and-orphan-black-comes-to-idw/#commentsThu, 20 Nov 2014 02:30:37 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=202611Welcome to this week’s edition of Comics Relief! Today we’ve got news on the BBC’s popular Orphan Black television series coming to comics, and a 1990s retro explosion over at DC Comics. But first, the box office champions of 2014 are quickly becoming Marvel’s latest mega-franchise, as they add yet another title to their already impressive roster…

Marvel Launches Sixth Guardians of the Galaxy Ongoing Comic

One gigantic worldwide blockbuster hit movie, and suddenly these guys think they’re the X-Men or something, sheesh. This February, Marvel will launch their sixth ongoing Guardians of the Galaxy related title with Guardians Team-Up, from writer Brian Michael Bendis, with art and cover for the first issue by none other than Art Adams. This joins Guardians of the Galaxy, Legendary Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, and Guardians 3000. Actually, it’s really seven titles if you count the upcoming Marvel Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy comic, which is based on the new animated series that’s coming from Disney XD. Marvel, we love these guys as much as anyone, but slow your roll! Too much of a good thing often leads to overkill. I mean, look at what happened to the X-Men line, and the Deadpool line, and the Batman books….actually, never mind, just keep doing what you’re doing Marvel. In comics, there is obviously no such thing as too much of a good thing. [USAToday]

Dynamite Teams Up With Comicsfix On A Digital Subscription Format

Dynamite Entertainment has entered into a partnership with Comicsfix to offer their titles on a subscription-based digital platform, offering all of their available comics to subscribers for a monthly fee of $9.95, essentially using the Netflix model, but for comics. Some of the books already available are the first two volumes of Garth Ennis’ The Boys, Gail Simone’s Legends of Red Sonja, and Project Superpowers, which featured covers by Alex Ross; more single issues and full series from Dynamite will continue to be added every week on Comicsfix. [Comics Beat]

DC’s Convergence Week Two Is A ’90s Nostalgia-Fest

In last week’s Comics Relief, we shared the first details of week one of DC’s tie-in books to their crossover Convergence series. All the books for the first week of Convergence seem to be centered on characters as we left them before the switch to the New 52 happened back in 2011. This week, DC released details on their second week of tie-in books, and it’s a total 1990’s Nostalgia fest, with books centered on the DCU just prior to the Zero Hour mini-series from 1994. Which means we’ve got hook-handed Aquaman, Azrael as Batman, Hal Jordan as Parallax, Catwoman in her purple tights, and even the Matrix version of Supergirl (never thought to see her again.) Even more ’90s awesomeness in these tie-ins is that the characters of the ’90s DCU will be facing off with their counterparts from the Kingdom Come Earth. Which is fitting, since Kingdom Come, although an alternate Earth to the main DCU Earth, came out in 1996. [Blastr, Hitfix]

BOOM! Set To Collect Noir Inspired Series Hit: 1955

Coming this December from BOOM! is the collected version of Harvey Award nominated noir series Hit: 1955, the four-issue series written by Bryce Carlson and drawn by Vanesa R. Del Rey. The story looks at the twisted history of the Los Angeles Police Department and of the cops who did some under-the-table wetwork in an attempt to clean up the streets. This book collects the complete four-issue limited series, features the never-before-seen prose short story, “Bonnie,” and includes an introduction by American crime author Duane Swierczynski. [Bleeding Cool]

Marvel Debuts Ant-Man #1 Shrinking Variant In January

With his own movie coming out next summer, Marvel is making sure they’ve got a new ongoing comics series in the pipeline for just when the movie hits, with Ant-Man #1 coming this January from the creative team of Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas. The new series will feature the Scott Lang version of the character, presumably since that’s the version that the movie will have. Now as an added incentive, the first issue will have a “shrinking variant” cover, drawn by Ed McGuinness. Each individually numbered cover will feature Ant-Man at a different size, with no two covers having him at exactly the same size. According to Marvel’s David Gabriel, “this is completely unlike any cover we’ve ever attempted; we’ve even had to utilize new technologies to make it happen. Each variant is completely unique. Each and every cover will feature a different sized Ant-Man. No two are identical!” The first issue of Ant-Man hits January 7th, 2015. [ComicBook.com]

Dark Horse Officially Announces The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Hardcover

For a period of about five years, from 1982 till about 1987, the Masters of the Universe line of toys made billions for Mattel, and defined action figures for a whole generation. Tons of art for tie-in comics and promotional material, not to mention the animated series, was produced during this time, and now Dark Horse Comics has collected much of that art for a new hardcover book, The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. set to hit stores in April, 2015.

According to Dark Horse’s advance solicitation for the book, this will be a “comprehensive retrospective chronicling He-Man’s decades-long, epic journey from toy, to television, to film, to a true pop culture phenomenon.” The book will include rarely seen images of concept sketches, prototypes, restored art from primary He-Man illustrator Earl Norem, and more from Mattel’s archives, as well as interviews with people like Paul Dini, who got his start on the animated series, and even big-screen He-Man himself, Dolph Lundgren. [Comic Book Resources]

DC Superstars Grant Morrison & Jim Lee Team Up For Multiversity: The Mastermen

Two names that have been synonymous with DC comics for the past decade have been Grant Morrison and Jim Lee, the latter of whom is now co-publisher of the company. Somehow though, these two comics titans have barely ever worked together, except for their aborted relaunch of Wildcats from around 2006 or so that only lasted one issue; Grant Morrison simply pulled the plug on it after bad reviews. Now these two are getting another chance together, with Multiversity: Mastermen #1, which features the inhabitants of Earth-10.

According to the official description, “Imagine a world where the Nazis not only won World War II but went on to direct world culture for the next 60 years with the help of an orphaned, alien super-weapon known as Overman! But hope is not lost! Rising from the ashes of oppression are a diverse band of heroes raging against the fascist regime – a band of heroes known as THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS!” It looks like Earth-10 will be based on the old pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-X, only with a Nazi Superman element added into the mix. All I know is that Morrison + Jim Lee = me on board. [Newsarama]

Orphan Black Comes To IDW in February

One of the BBC’s most popular shows on both sides of the Atlantic for the past few years has been Orphan Black; now IDW is bringing the clone saga to comics this coming February, with an all-new mini-series series from the show’s co-creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, who are using the series to expands on the saga with all-new material exclusive to the comics. According to IDW’s official solicitation for the first issue, this includes “clues and Easter eggs for the highly anticipated third season, coming in April.”

Each issue will explore the life of a different clone, starting with Sarah, and the first issue alone will have eight different covers. Art for the first issue comes from Szymon Kudranski (Spawn, Detective Comics.) If you’re a hardcore Orphan Black fan and want to have every variant cover without hunting them all down, IDW will also be issuing a deluxe collectible box, which includes all eight standard covers. [Comic Book Resources]

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Which of this comics news items are you most amped up for? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-guardians-of-the-galaxy-get-another-ongoing-comic-grant-morrison-jim-lee-collaborate-on-multiversity-and-orphan-black-comes-to-idw/feed/1Comics Relief: HARLEY QUINN’s Crazy Variant Cover, STAR WARS Humble Bundle, Grant Morrison SPAWN Updates, and Morehttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-harley-quinns-crazy-variant-cover-star-wars-humble-bundle-grant-morrison-spawn-updates-and-more/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-harley-quinns-crazy-variant-cover-star-wars-humble-bundle-grant-morrison-spawn-updates-and-more/#commentsSat, 18 Oct 2014 01:30:51 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=192671Welcome to another edition of Comics Relief, where this week we ponder just what the heck is up with all these Marvel events making a return, try and guess just what Mark Millar has got up his sleeve, and more. So let’s get started with the latest from Marvel’s seemingly endless teases surrounding Secret Wars. Or at least what we think is Secret Wars...it is a secret after all….

Marvel Teases Years of Future Past, Planet Hulk, and Armor Wars

Marvel continues to tease old events coming back in a new way this week, as they released images for X-Men: Days of Future Past (or actually Years of Future Past), PlanetHulk, and Armor Wars, all said to be coming in Summer 2015. The Years of Future Past image is from artist Art Adams, who a lot of fans might remember as the cover artist for Classic X-Men back in the day as well as New Mutants, making this retro cover even more appropriate. Marvel still is being secretive about what all these old events coming back means, but the general consensus is that it all has something to do with Secret Wars.

Here’s the good news: According to some recent research by FiveThirtyEight.com, Nate Silver’s website that applies data to various subjects (most famously American elections), the ratio of female to male characters in mainstream superhero comics is improving, and more LGBT characters are showing up in Marvel and DC’s pages. Having said that however, it seems the numbers still aren’t that encouraging. According to the report, “female characters make up only 30.9 percent of the DC universe and 30.6 percent of the Marvel universe.” I guess some improvement is better than no improvement, but it shows we have quite the ways to go still.

Mark Millar is one of those comic book writers who likes to talk a big game about upcoming projects, and you can add another one to that list; on his message board, he’s been teasing a 10-issue series that has a lot of people guessing that this could be his first DC Comics work since 2003’s Superman: Red Son, and possibly involving some of those characters again. Posting a page of artwork this morning on his message board, Millar asked members to guess the artist, the project and which “well-known superheroes” are shown, promising that all would be revealed soon. He then offered four clues as to what the project is, stating:

1/ These are huge superheroes.

2/ I have written TWO of these characters before.

3/ It relates to a very major series (or is that special project?) I have written in my past.

4/ The last time I worked with this artist is the gift that keeps on giving.

Clark Kent, is that you? If you ask me, it looks like the classic Justice League at the offices of Sterling Cooper & Partners from Mad Men.

Did Grant Morrison almost write Spawn (again)? Bleeding Cool seems to think so. They ran a rumor last summer that Morrison was planning a follow up to his three issue stint on the book from the nineties in a new series, but it wasn’t announced at either San Diego or New York Comic Cons. Instead, a new Spawn series from Brian Wood called Spawn Resurrected was announced instead. However, a very senior source told Bleeding Cool that a number of artists had been approached to draw the book, and sold on the idea that it would be written by Morrison doing the writing. It hasn’t materialized yet, but could it still eventually be in the pipeline? Who knows! That Grant Morrison is a busy man after all.

The Flash, DC’s latest television star, turns 75 years old next year (well, the Jay Garrick version does, but why pick nits.) To celebrate, DC is releasing a 17 different variant covers in January, all featuring the Scarlet Speedster zipping his way through classic DC cover images. Check them all out here.

The first issue of the New Ms. Marvel series, which features an all-new Muslim-American teenager in the role, wasn’t expected by many to be a success, but it has just joined the ranks of such books as Justice League #1 and Avengers vs X-Men#1 in getting a seventh printing. Getting a seventh printing is no small achievement these days, so congrats to writer G. Willow Wilson and everyone else involved.

Marvel may be adding Star Wars to their line-up very soon, but long time Star Wars rights holder Dark Horse isn’t quite done with the Galaxy far, far away just yet; Dark Horse is the latest in a long line of publishers to offer up a “Humble Bundle” comics package, and this one is all Star Wars comics. This is about $190 worth of comics available in the deal, and all it takes is $15 to get everything. The proceeds can be split any way buyers want between Dark Horse and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The comics are available in CBZ and PDF formats, and are DRM-free. The offer ends Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

So the Harley Quinn Annual coming up from DC Comics has created quite the controversy; the scratch n’ sniff cover smells like…well, check out the house ad for the actual comic, it kind of speaks for itself

What do you make of today’s top stories? Let us know in the comments below!

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-harley-quinns-crazy-variant-cover-star-wars-humble-bundle-grant-morrison-spawn-updates-and-more/feed/5Comics Relief: Valiant Next, FANTASTIC FOUR Cancelled & 007 Comes To Comicshttp://nerdist.com/comics-relief-valiant-next-fantastic-four-cancelled-007-comes-to-comics/
http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-valiant-next-fantastic-four-cancelled-007-comes-to-comics/#commentsThu, 09 Oct 2014 01:30:29 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=189889It’s the quiet before the storm — the storm being New York Comic Con, that is to say. Expect lots of cool new announcements from the Con, but in the meantime, check out this past week’s assorted comic book news items from around the internet. It’s time for another edition of Comics Relief.

Dynamite Entertainment Acquires James Bond 007 License

Maybe the biggest pre-New York Comic Con news of the week is Dynamite Entertainment‘s acquisition of the worldwide rights to publish James Bond comic books, graphic novels and digital comics starting in 2015. Dynamite’s press release says they plan on publishing both “visual adaptations” of Bond creator Ian Fleming’s original stories, plus new stories, including stories that feature Bond’s pre-Casino Royale origins, as well as “other familiar faces,” both villains and allies, will appear in the new material. “We are excited to build upon Fleming’s source material with new canonical stories, and are honored at Dynamite to be a small part of his legacy, to be able to bring new stories to fans around the world,” added Dynamite CEO and publisher Nick Barrucci. [Bleeding Cool]

Marvel Launches Squirrel Girl Ongoing Series

I’m not 100% sure who’s been asking for a Squirrel Girl ongoing series, but it if it’s you, then you’re in luck; The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is coming next January from writer Ryan North and artist Erica Henderson. In the new series, uses her squirrel powers to stop villains like Doctor Doom and Thanos (actually, she’s already fought those guys and won. Don’t mess with Squirrel Girl.) [Comic Book Resources]

Valiant Comics Announces “Valiant Next” Initiative

In anticipation of this weekend’s New York Comic Con, Valiant Entertainment is proud to announce Valiant Next – an all-new wave of ongoing series and prestige format projects from some of the premier creative talents in comics today. Beginning in December with The Valiant #1 (of 4) by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and Paolo Rivera, it all continues with five blockbuster new series in 2015: Ivar, Timewalker #1 by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry in January,Divinity #1 (of 4) by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine in February, Imperium #1 by Joshua Dysart and Doug Braithwaite in February, Ninjak #1 by Matt Kindt and Clay Mann in March, and Bloodshot Reborn #1 by Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan in April. This initiative will present six new starting points perfect for readers new and old. Featuring an exciting selection of new series starring Valiant’s biggest, most-demanded heroes alongside all-new, never before seen characters.

Marvel’s Plans To Cancel the Fantastic Four Seemingly Confirmed

Earlier this year, it was rumored that Marvel planned to cancel the founding Marvel Universe title The Fantastic Four, said to be an effort to spite Twentieth Century Fox, who own the Fantastic Four movie license. According to website Bleeding Cool, Hachette Book Group, Marvel’s distributor in the bookstore world, has listed a Fantastic FourVol. 4: The End is Fourever collected edition by current creative team James Robinson and Leonard Kirk, with a release date of June 30, 2015. In the product description it says that the book will contain the “Triple Sized Final Issue 645.”

Of course, just because it’s the final issue of the current run doesn’t mean it won’t be brought back (there’s no way that at some point, it won’t) But it seems that when Fox’ new Fantastic Four reboot hits theaters in 2015, there’s a good chance that Marvel won’t have an FF comic on the shelves, and that can’t be a coincidence.

Image Comics has become home to some of the most critically acclaimed comic books of the last several years, and several of the newer Image books like Southern Bastards, The Wicked + The Divine, Velvet,Burn the Orphanage and several more are having their first few issues dropped down to 99 cents each on comiXology. There are several other first issues included, like Shutter, Fuse and C.O.W.L, but the sale only lasts till Friday October 10th, so you might want to jump on this one now.

Although the estate of the late Jack Kirby reached a settlement with Marvel last week, this week the heirs of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster were dealt a less favorable result. On Monday, October 6th, the Court released a list of all the cases that it declined to hear in this session, and the list includes the case of the family of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. The decision upholds the ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated that Shuster’s nephew had no ownership claim on the character. The Shuster estate gave up its claims to Superman in a 1992 agreement that gave the family a $600,000 payout and a $25,000 annual pension (which, considering the massive amounts of money brought in each year by Superman merchandise, doesn’t seem nearly enough.) Speaking of Superman…

Superman “Scores” T-Shirt Given An Overhaul By Artist Bill Sienkiewicz

Remember the totally sexist t-shirts featuring DC characters that everyone (including yours truly) made a big stink about last week? The ones where Superman “Does it again” and “scores” Wonder Woman? Well, veteran comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz didn’t like it all that much either, and offered a “corrected” image for the back of the shirt via his Facebook page.

Grant Morrison is getting ready to bring his long gestating movie project Sinatoro to comics, via Black Mask Studios, with artist Vanessa Del Ray. Sinatoro is about a man with no past and no memories who is the sole survivor of a car crash in the American desert. The comic will be an adaptation of Morrison’s screenplay for the film. In the Hollywood Reporter piece, Morrison said that he decided to bring it to comics while he “figures out how to work a manageable take for an adaptation” due to the story’s massive scope that would have been cost prohibitive as a feature film. The first issue arrives in April 2015.

The art/writing duo of Arthur Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, better known simply as “Art and Franco”, is bringing back Itty Bitty Hellboy as part of a new all-ages series of Itty Bittycomics from Dark Horse. The series kicks off in November with the publication of Itty Bitty Mask. Much as Art and Franco did with the Teen Titans and Young Justice characters for DC with Tiny Titans,Itty Bitty Hellboy will be a pint-sized version of Hellboy and his supporting cast as they get into all kinds of trouble. What began last year as three issue mini-series that was quickly expanded into five, and will now be expanded into even more. And stay tuned for more Itty Bitty announcements coming from Dark Horse this weekend from New York City Comic-Con.

What do you think of today’s top stories? Let us know in the comments below or tell me on Twitter (@GeekBoyEric).

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-valiant-next-fantastic-four-cancelled-007-comes-to-comics/feed/3Fantastic Fest Review: FUTURE SHOCK! THE STORY OF 2000 ADhttp://nerdist.com/fantastic-fest-review-future-shock-the-story-of-2000-ad/
http://nerdist.com/fantastic-fest-review-future-shock-the-story-of-2000-ad/#commentsThu, 25 Sep 2014 21:30:21 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=185803Right around the time the punk rock scene was picking up its full head of system-bucking steam, another punk scene was taking shape in a very different medium, but with no less anger, discontent, and desire to shock. While American comic books in the late 1970s were goofy, disco superheroes, British anthology comic 2000 AD was upping the violence, packing in the subversive satire, and becoming a staple for readers looking for something decidedly from the future. The book has been much hailed over the years, but until now the full story has never been shared. Paul Goodwin’s comprehensive documentary Future Shock! The Story of 2000 AD covers the entire 35+ year history of the book with interviews with creators and fans alike.

We’ve all probably heard of Judge Dredd, the creation of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra which has gone on to be the most popular and famous of 2000 AD‘s recurring stories, but this film is by no means simply a history of that character; it goes in depth into many of the other series such as Strontium Dog, D.R. and Quinch, The Ballad of Halo Jones, and Future Shock itself, many of which aren’t very well known in this country, but are positively revered in the United Kingdom. It’s these stories and their creators I found to be most interesting in the documentary, because while certain big names did cross over into American comics (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, etc) during DC and Vertigo’s cherry-picking in the mid-to-late-80s, there are others who I flatly didn’t know about, to my own shame.

Goodwin’s film is full of energy which perfectly reflects the attitude of the book and its creators. This is one of the more foul-mouthed documentaries not having to do with organized crime, and that’s simply because these creators, many of whom came to work in comics because of 2000 AD‘s influence, never lost their edge or their disdain for authority. If not for 2000 AD, the American comics industry might still be all smiles and spandex because of how many writers and artists came over to work here. But, we’re told time and again, for all their grumbles about the way the magazine paid people and took all rights to characters and the like, it offered them the chance to pretty much do whatever they wanted.

It’s not all a love fest for the book either; on top of the issue of creator non-ownership and poor payment, the film also spends time talking about the level of ultra-violence in the stories, which gave the censors a lot of cause for concern, and how these books were written for boys by boys. It wasn’t until much, much later that women got involved in 2000 AD in any way at all, limiting a lot of the scope of story and alienating a readership who might otherwise be very interested.

In short, Future Shock! is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen about the medium of comic books and one that packs in the information while still maintaining a high energy and style. The speed metal soundtrack doesn’t hurt. If you get a chance, I highly encourage you to check this movie out.

According to a press release from the publisher, one of the All-Star Superman and New X-Men writer’s mid-’90s scripts for the British superhero comic will finally be making its debut in All-New Miracleman #1 with a little help from artist and Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada.

Marvel’s been publishing creator Mick Anglo’s run on the book, and this sees them adding some new content to the superhero’s universe here in the States.

The book’s a two-fer, though: in addition to the Morrison/Quesada collaboration, Peter Milligan (Lucifer, Crossing Midnight) is teaming up with his X-Statix collaborator Mike Allred (creator of Mad Man) for a second story in the oversized annual.

Morrison’s story will focus on Kid Miracleman, in what Marvel is calling a “foreboding” tale set before the Battle of London. For a little context, that was the all-out slobberknocker between Kid and classic Miracleman (AKA Marvelman in the U.K.) which leveled buildings and lead to the deaths of thousands in Alan Moore and John Totelben’s Miracleman #15. The level of violence in the issue was genre-pushing at the time, one of the major “what if superheroes really did what superheroes do in the real world” books.

Then Milligan takes a little headtrip back to the glory days of the Miracle family as Miracleman, Kid Miracleman, and Young Miracleman fight a new enemy (or maybe just figments of Miracleman’s imagination).

Garbriele Dell’otto is on covers for the December 31 release, and in addition to the pair of stories, Marvel is promising bonus content including original art, Morrison’s original script, and sketches.

]]>http://nerdist.com/grant-morrison-and-peter-milligan-join-marvels-miracleman-annual-1/feed/1Review: DC’s MULTIVERSITY: SOCIETY OF SUPER-HEROES #1http://nerdist.com/review-dcs-multiversity-society-of-super-heroes-1/
http://nerdist.com/review-dcs-multiversity-society-of-super-heroes-1/#commentsSat, 20 Sep 2014 18:00:16 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=184462Is it possible that the second installment of Grant Morrison’s Multiversity event is even better than the first? This second installment in the series isn’t really “issue two” as much as it is a next chapter in Morrison’s exploration of the new DC Comics multiverse, but Multiversity: Society of Super-Heroes – Conquerers from the Counter-World is pure fun from start to finish, and the kind of comic you read multiple times just to pick up on all the little details and nuances you missed the first time you read it.

On Earth-20, there is no Justice League or Justice Society of America or seemingly any version of Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. Instead, it’s sometime in the 1940’s (or possibly 1930’s) and the world is protected by “Doc” Fate and the Society of Super-Heroes. On this Earth, Morrison has created a world steeped in the pulp tropes that were so popular in the twenties and thirties, before Superman and Batman hit the scene, the kind found in cheap dime store novels that featured heroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow. On Earth-20, the mystical helmet of Nabu has fallen into the hands of one such Doc Savage type (with a dash of the Rocketeer for good measure) and presto! Morrison has created the perfect amalgam of rugged period adventurer and master sorcerer. It’s a super obvious combination that you wonder why no one’s made it until now, and yet it’s also a totally original idea at the same time.

Other heroes on this Earth are an eighteen year old Al Pratt (who, much like in other universes, is the Atom), Lady Blackhawk, and Green Lantern, who is an even more alien-looking version of Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who was Hal Jordan’s predecessor on “our” Earth (wearing a version of the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott’s costume. So many references!). Our entry way into the S.O.S in this issue is through their newest recruit, the Immortal Man, a character whose power it is to literally not be able to die. I love that Morrison mixes and matches from so many different DC comics eras; the easy thing to do here would be to take the Justice Society characters from the forties and give them pulp fiction tweaks, but Morrison takes from various DC eras. Immortal Man is a sixties character, for example, as is Abin Sur, and the creature Parallax makes an appearance here as well, a much more recent addition to the DC mythology. Everything in the DCU is subject for Grant Morrison to put in his giant blender and be given a pulpy twist, and it all comes out pretty awesome.

As far as plot goes, Doc Fate has revealed to the team that Green Lantern has has given him some deadly info, and by peeking into his giant crystal ball, they learn of the immanent invasion of their Earth from the parallel Earth-40 (it seems every hundred thousand years or so, an Earth in the Multiverse becomes blurred with its opposite number, and one world can bleed into the other with ease). Earth-40 is ruled over by one Vandal Savage, also an immortal, who gained his power the same way that Immortal Man did on his Earth, by coming into contact with a mysterious meteor back in the stone age. But instead, Savage uses that immortality for evil, selfish ends. He unleashes a war on Earth-20 with every nasty little thing at his disposal: killer robots, zombies, you name it. The war lasts for five years, and the Society of Super-Heroes fight Vandal Savage’s army with ever weapon at their disposal until finally both Immortal Man and the Atom have to break promises made to themselves to stop him. But in doing so, they unleash something far worse upon the Multiverse. All of this in one issue too.

This issue is essentially a standalone, and although it sort of ends on a cliffhanger (which will continue in the next standalone Multiversity one-shot, The Just) as a story it also feels complete and whole unto itself. Big, grandiose ideas flow out of Grant Morrison’s brain, and when you read them you can’t help but marvel at how much fun you’e having reading it. Lots of things happen in this one comic, yet it somehow doesn’t feel overstuffed or hard to follow, which can be a problem with Grant Morrison’s writing sometimes (like in Final Crisis). In so many ways, this Multiversity event feels like a big palate cleanser, because DC has made so many “dark n’ gritty books” since the New 52 began, and yet Morrison is all about making things big, crazy, bright and FUN. Even an evil robot and zombie invasion seems like a fun romp when Morrison writes it.

Aside from Morrison’s script of course, the secret weapon of this issue is the artwork by Chris Sprouse, Karl Story and Walden Wong. Sprouse is maybe best known for his work with Alan Moore in the pages of Tom Strong, a character also inspired by the pulp fiction novels of the twenties and thirties, so you can easily see why Morrison chose him to pencil this issue. His artwork is clean and crisp and just this side of cartoony, but absolutely perfect for the world Morrison created in Earth-20. The last time I remember seeing Sprouse’s artwork was in the Midnighter series a couple of years ago, but his pencils seem way more suited for the likes of the S.O.S. and the pulpy, art deco world they inhabit. Although this is a one-off, the potential for more S.O.S stories exists, and I for one hope someone, even if it’s not Grant Morrison, takes advantage of this. Grant Morrison has created a fascinating new playground for DC to play with this new Earth, and I truly hope DC is smart enough to take advantage of it beyond just this one issue.

In this installment of Comics Relief, see what Thanos’ son has been up to, spend some money in the Top Shelf shop (but not too much, it’s a sale), and find out what the writer behind the Fantastic Four movie would do if he got his hands on Lobo.

Top Shelf Is Throwing a Massive Sale (And You’re All Invited)

Top Shelf just launched their regular blowout sale for those of you who are still fans of print books. The publisher is offering some great deals on hardcovers like Alan Moore’s third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ($15), and the massive Infinite Kung Fu ($10). The sale runs through September 26.

The Infinite Comics digital book is coming to print in October, as writer Rob Williams lets readers spend some time with Thanos’ son, Thane. This morning, the publisher released a preview and the cover in a press release:

Read a Free Chapter of Spy Drama Zero

This Bosnia-set chapter of Ales Kot’s spy comic Zero is up for grabs today through publisher Image. The series imagines what would happen if James Bond existed in the real world, and this, the ninth chapter, follows arms dealer Roman Zizek in the middle of the bloody ethnic conflict.

Image has decided to show the last major arc in The Walking Dead some love with an Artist’s Proof Edition of issues #115-126, “All Out War.” The 12-issue arc will be presented with Charlie Adlard’s raw pencils as Rick’s and several other communities confront the villain Negan and his band of “Saviors.” The 248=page hardcover will be on shelves October 1 in comic shops and October 8 in book stores.

[via Image]

Comics Bulletin Takes a Look at Classic Marvel Graphic Novels

The publisher has shied away from graphic novels in recent years, but once upon a time, the House of Ideas was the House of glossy, standalone books. Comics Bulletin’s Chris Wunderlich takes a look at John Byrne’s Marvel Graphic Novel #18: She-Hulk, Ernie Colon’s Marvel Graphic Novel #44: Ax, and Don McGregor’s Marvel Graphic Novel #7: Killraven.

With his horror comic Annihilator out this week from Legendary, Bleeding Cool dissects the work of writer Grant Morrison. This time out, writer Adam X. Smith looks at the dueling morality at the heart of Morrison’s Animal Man run.

I have my own interview with Morrison about Annihilator, which you can read right here.

]]>http://nerdist.com/comics-relief-marvels-new-thanos-comic-danny-mcbride-as-lobo-the-walking-dead-artists-edition-and-more/feed/2Interview: ANNIHILATOR Writer Grant Morrison Finds a Black Hole in Los Angeleshttp://nerdist.com/interview-annihilator-writer-grant-morrison-finds-a-black-hole-in-los-angeles/
http://nerdist.com/interview-annihilator-writer-grant-morrison-finds-a-black-hole-in-los-angeles/#commentsWed, 10 Sep 2014 18:45:09 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=181651Annihilator is the latest from comics writer Grant Morrison, and like many of the prolific author’s works, it’s about writing (and a little about Morrison himself). The somewhat disorienting mix of horror and science fiction (at least in the way Morrison doles out the materials) is out this week, following the steady professional, physical, and mental decline of screenwriter Ray Spass. Ray has just moved into a notorious Hollywood murder house, a site of alleged Satanic ritual and home to a seemingly bottomless void out in the yard. And light years away, at the center of the galaxy exists a massive black hole called “The Great Annihilator”, the basis for Ray’s latest screenplay, which is bleeding over into the real world.

So who is Ray Spass? “[Ray’s] a couple of screenwriters I’ve met in Hollywood,” Morrison told me by phone in a recent interview. “These people are a couple of friends of mine that I know very well and I can not name them, because if I’d name them, they’d be forever condemned.” Morrison chuckles off this last part, saying that there’s a bit of himself in Ray.

It’s interesting that he would say that – Ray is a consummate nihilist (as is the antihero of Ray’s screenplay/possible real-world maniac Max Nomax). That point of view is a total 180 from the Morrison who dropped himself into the middle of his seminal Animal Man run, or the one who often casts nihilists as the powerful but ultimately flawed villains in works like Seven Soldiers or Final Crisis.

I asked where this fascination with the philosophy comes from, and Morrison says he’s fascinated by those who’d try to sell their own definitive take on the world or art (or whatever). “I think especially in Los Angeles, where you have this culture with Anton LeVay, and the Doors, and this dark infrastructure. For me, [Annihilator] is about exploring that dark hole at the center of the bright lights and celebrity.”

He talked about loving being in a city where some of his projects continue to wind their way from one medium to another and falling in love with the different storytelling structure that Hollywood employs versus his that of he and his fellow comic writers. But he also sees film as being limited as a medium.

“It feels that film could be a whole lot better,” he laughs. He has high praise for Guardians of the Galaxy, suggesting that its popularity speaks to an audience that wants “fantastical scenes, and things people only imagine.” When I mention a moment in his own story where Ray’s agent suggests that the writer “ground” his story in reality a bit more, Morrison gets a bit more animated: “It’s always ‘grounded!’ You hear people say, ‘Let’s ground Superman.’ Fuck, he can fly, that’s the last character you want to ground!”

When he hears that writers need to ground their scripts in human experience, Morrison says that the whole reason people go to the theater is because they’re looking for something beyond human experience. “Everything we make – every plot, every story is human. I don’t get how a fantasy movie is in any way less a product of human intelligence than a relationship movie.”

Getting back to Los Angeles, Morrison says that for all that, he still loves the city. For the writer, it’s the most attractive place for him as an artist. “But at the same time, it’s about creating an artifice,” he says.

That’s at the heart of the horror of Annihilator, Morrison explained. It’s a book about finding out “that all of the meaning in your life is meaningless, and being swallowed up by the nihilistic black hole.” Morrison says that the philosophy at the heart of the book would be familiar to anyone who followed Matthew McConaughey’s character Rustin Cole in True Detective, the idea that we as a species should cease reproducing given a lack of inherent meaning in our collective existence.

When I ask where the writings of some of the major nihilist philosophers fit into his own work, Morrison says that he likes a good antagonists, and that nihilism is the ultimate antagonism for an optimist like him. “The idea for Annihilator was to take some of that [philosophy] and look at it through the lens of art,” Morrison says. “Because art allows us to make sense of these things.”

So why approach a horror story through a second sci-fi story? “Because all our internal lives are science fiction,” Morrison explains. “We’re all superheroes in our own stories and in the internal stories that we tell ourselves. Mom and dad, you know, are Zeus and Hera. I think there’s something mythological about our lives and I wanted to put it into the story and give it that dimension.”

Talking about superhero mythology lead me to ask about his recent decision to step away from superhero comics for a while, a decision he tells me was born of frustration with the “synthetic universes” in these books. “Everything in a comic universe is like ‘Barry! Wally! Ollie!’ You know, it’s these characters you’re supposed to give a fuck about, but it’s getting really hard because they don’t actually exist.” He says that he’d become burned out on writing these same archetypes over and over, but that some of his work – like the recently launched The Multiversity – attempts to confront audience obsession with these characters that they can control and understand.

Before Morrison leaves, I ask about that need for control among a segment of fandom, the kind of control that rejects the idea of women, minority, or gay characters in their book, a group that’s vigilant for “tokenism” and thinks the word “diversity” is a four letter one. “I don’t know who these people are. I could happily see a black Spider-Man or a green Spider-Man, or a Zebra Spider-Man. Honestly, I don’t know who’s complaining. Because life is diversity – our streets are filled with all kinds of people with all kinds of races, and backgrounds, and colors. And why can’t we see that in our artwork?”

]]>http://nerdist.com/interview-annihilator-writer-grant-morrison-finds-a-black-hole-in-los-angeles/feed/3Nerdist Podcast: Grant Morrisonhttp://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-grant-morrison/
http://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-grant-morrison/#commentsWed, 27 Aug 2014 18:00:47 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?post_type=pepisode&p=177923Grant Morrison comes on The Nerdist to talk about how Comic-Con has changed over the last 20 years, what is was like growing up in Scotland with American comics, his process for writing Batman and Superman, and his new book Annihilator!
]]>http://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-grant-morrison/feed/15Review: Grant Morrison’s MULTIVERSITY #1http://nerdist.com/review-grant-morrisons-multiversity-1/
http://nerdist.com/review-grant-morrisons-multiversity-1/#commentsFri, 22 Aug 2014 00:30:34 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=176554I love the Marvel universe, don’t get me wrong. We go way back. But I’ll always love the DC Universe a little bit more, despite knowing deep down that the Marvel Universe is tighter, more well thought out, and more consistent overall. But what draws me so much to the DCU is how wild it is, how BIG it is. Anything is possible in the DC Universe, and nothing is too crazy. In my three decades plus of reading comics, I’ve seen the DC Universe contract (Crisis on Infinite Earths) expand (Infinite Crisis, 52) and start all over again (Flashpoint). Some of this frustrates me as a reader sometimes, but it’s that “anything can happen here” aspect of the DC Universe that always keeps me coming back.

People often say that superheroes are our modern day mythology, and they’re right. But the thing about myths is that they change and morph over time depending on who is telling the myth. Tall tales that change as they are passed down, all while still retaining a kernel of their original idea, at least enough to make them recognizable; to me, that’s the definition of mythology, and DC is all about that. The Marvel heroes aren’t really “myths” in the strictest sense. All these years later, they’re all still the same heroes that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko created fifty years ago. There’s not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to interpretations of Spider-Man, for example. The DCU heroes, on the other hand, are constantly changing: aspects of their stories come and go depending on the creators and the times in which they are being represented. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are wildly different characters from decade to decade, and from medium to medium, yet they are always identifiable as those characters. There is a fluidity to the DC heroes that Marvel just doesn’t have.

No creator understands and utilizes this aspect of the DC Universe or makes it work to his advantage better than writer Grant Morrison. Say what you will about some of his missteps (Final Crisis anyone?). More than anyone else, he understands that utilizing that epic grandness is the key to understanding DC. One just has to read his run on JLA from the nineties or his All-Star Superman to understand that. Doing “big” and “grand” is Morrison’s greatest strength as a writer, and Multiversity is the opus he’s been working on now for over five years. Ever since bringing back their Multiverse in 2007 at the end of their maxi-series 52, DC hasn’t done much with it, aside from the Earth-2 ongoing series. Scuttlebutt is that they’ve been saving it for Grant Morrison to map out and fully expand the rest of the multiverse, which is what he’s doing here in Multiversity. Finally, after all these years, we are going to see what those fifty-plus other Earths have to offer us. Our patience has paid off.

In this first issue of Multiversity, there is no shortage of big cosmic ideas happening. This isn’t a book for comic book newbies or people generally unfamiliar with the more “out there” aspects of the DC universe. As the issue opens, we are re-introduced to Nix Uotan, the Last Monitor from Morrison’s infamous Final Crisis series, who, while reading a “cursed comic book” (that happens to be a future issue of Multiversity), is then summoned to Earth-7 where an aboriginal super hero named Thunderer is seemingly the last man standing on his Earth. Naturally, Thunderer is fighting against a giant Lovecraftian villain with one giant eye and bat wings called The Gentry.

Nix Uotan then helps the Thunderer escape to the Orrery of Worlds at the center of the Multiverse. Quick sidenote: DC All Access has a very handy guide to the new Multiverse by the way; this is essential viewing before reading this series in my opinion. So the Thunderer ends up in the original Monitors’ satellite from the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths series, along with black President Superman of Earth-23, Captain Carrot, (an anthropomorphic super bunny), Dino-Cop (an obvious analog for Image Comics’ Savage Dragon), and many other hero characters, some familiar and some new. There are long forgotten JLA heroes from the eighties and nineties like Bloodwynd and Gypsy, and a female version of Aquaman who is a spot-on representation of the gender-swapped Justice League cosplayers who famously attend many a comic con. Also prominently featured is Red Racer, a seemingly gay comic book geek version of the Flash from Earth-36, who seems to be dating a version of his Earth’s Green Lantern.

After hearing the message from a holographic version of Harbinger, who has informed them that she has gathered the greatest heroes of the 52 Earths, several of them set off on a journey in Nix’s living craft, the Ultima Thule, an interdimensional spacecraft made of “frozen music” that allows them to travel all 52 parallel worlds. Why frozen music? Because the multiverse is fifty-two universes “all ringing” but occupying the same frequency, creating a kind of “song”-the Ultima Thule allows them to play the music like a giant instrument, and travel between universes. (stuff like this is why I adore Grant Morrison’s brain.) This group of heroes, which refreshingly doesn’t have a single straight white male among them, end up on Earth-8, a world made up entirely of thinly veiled analogs for Marvel characters; Lord Havok is clearly Dr. Doom, and the Retaliators are essentially the Avengers, with characters like American CrUSAder in place of Captain America and Behemoth in place of the Hulk and whatnot. It’s on Earth-8 where we discover Nix Uoton again, but he’s not the same as when we left him on Earth-7, fighting for his life. He’s been changed into something “other”. Mind you, all this happens in just forty pages.

If this all sounds like way too much, like a giant hot mess of storytelling, then this book is simply not for you. Grant Morrison isn’t afraid to just let his imagination run wild and, at times, it can seem to get away from him (especially in the opening pages of the book). As a reader too, it can seem like too much, but once we gather all the heroes together, things start to really gel, and the charms of the book’s crazier concepts just win you over. Case in point, the fact that every one of Earth’s heroes are comic book adventures on a neighboring Earth. (“Comic books are really showing us what’s really happening on all our different Earths..messages in bottles from neighboring universes. It’s amazing!”) You either go for stuff like this, or you don’t.

Another reason why Multiversity #1 works as well as it does are the amazing pencils of Ivan Reis. For the last several years, Reis has been DC’s secret weapon, and his work here shows how crucial it is to have the right artist on a book like this. An artist with a more cluttered style, like Chris Bachalo, great as he is, would have been a nightmare on a book like this. Reis’ clean style allows all these characters to stand out and shine without getting lost in all the wackiness.

It’ll be impossible to really judge Multiversity until all is said and done. Issue #1 will be followed up six single issue adventures that take place on different alternate Earths, before coming back and tying it all up in Multiversity #2, but this first issue is off to the a great start, and I can’t wait to see what comes next. Multiversity will either end up being Grant Morrison’s greatest achievement or his biggest failure, but judging from this first comic, it definitely won’t be boring.

Grade: A

]]>http://nerdist.com/review-grant-morrisons-multiversity-1/feed/5Earth is Doomed in this Preview of Grant Morrison’s THE MULTIVERSITYhttp://nerdist.com/earth-is-doomed-in-this-preview-of-grant-morrisons-the-multiversity/
http://nerdist.com/earth-is-doomed-in-this-preview-of-grant-morrisons-the-multiversity/#commentsSat, 16 Aug 2014 02:00:06 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=174865One page into its first preview, and Grant Morrison’s The Multiversity has already gone gloriously off the rails. You don’t open your book with an exegesis on how life will find a way featuring microscopic parasites paired with a landlord trying to collect that paper unless you’re about to go all-out into the stratosphere (and beyond).

The dimension-spanning miniseries launches next week, and Wired was the first to run a 6-page preview of Morrison’s big event book. The nine-issue miniseries will see heroes from across the 52 parallel worlds that make up the DC Universe assembling as a kind of Justice League. Morrison did something similar in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, the partially 3D book which combined the Supermen of many universes to deal with part of Darkseid’s slow rolling threat across the multiverse.

Back in January, we ran our own preview of The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1.

From the official synopsis of The Multiversity #1:

“The biggest adventure in DC’s history is here!

In issue #1, pencilled by superstar artist Ivan Reis (Aquaman, Justice League), President Superman of Earth-23 uncovers a threat to all Reality so apocalyptic it will take a team of incredible heroes from across the Multiverse to face it – including Captain Carrot, like you’ve never seen him before!

But even with a multitude of alternate worlds to choose from, where every variation is possible, can anyone hope to prevail against the onslaught of ultimate evil and undying hatred – in the unstoppable form of a one-time cosmic defender with unimaginable powers?! Join us, if you dare, for the beginning of THE MULTIVERSITY!”

]]>http://nerdist.com/earth-is-doomed-in-this-preview-of-grant-morrisons-the-multiversity/feed/1Pickstarter: Explore Creativity with TEMPLE OF ART: THE DOCUMENTARYhttp://nerdist.com/pickstarter-explore-creativity-with-temple-of-art-the-documentary/
http://nerdist.com/pickstarter-explore-creativity-with-temple-of-art-the-documentary/#commentsMon, 11 Aug 2014 16:05:58 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=173718Why do people make art? It’s not a question that has a single answer. Painters, photographers, makers – everyone gets creative for different reasons. Photographer Allan Amato started asking artists this question when he took their pictures. He made the portrait collaborative by giving the photograph back to the artist so he/she could modify it with paint, decoupage, etc. He’s assembling the finished pieces into a book and is working with executive producers Jon Schnepp, Amanda Palmer, and Neil Gaiman to direct a documentary exploring why artists do what they do. He’s turned to Kickstarter to fund the project.

Temple of Art: The Documentary features over fifty artists that Amato has worked with over the past two years. He meditates daily on art, and while he photographed the artists in the documentary, it was only natural to ask them about their processes and motivations, too. Featured artists include Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, Roman Dirge, and Satine Phoenix among others. It looks to be an insightful and in-depth look at what inspires and drives people to create, and I have a feeling the documentary could be the kind of thing you turn to when you feel like your own creative juices are running low.

Learn more about it from Amato and the artists in the Kickstarter video:

Support levels range from $1 – $5,000. For $25, you get a digital version of the documentary and accompanying book as well as a nod in the end credits. Have $500? You can get a Temple of Art photo shoot of your own with Allan Amato. Other rewards include original art from artists featured in the documentary, prints, t-shirts, posters, and more. Head over to Kickstarter to help the documentary get made.

]]>http://nerdist.com/pickstarter-explore-creativity-with-temple-of-art-the-documentary/feed/175 Years of the Dark Knight, Straight from the Creators Themselveshttp://nerdist.com/75-years-of-the-dark-knight-straight-from-the-creators-themselves/
http://nerdist.com/75-years-of-the-dark-knight-straight-from-the-creators-themselves/#commentsFri, 25 Jul 2014 19:30:06 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=169548The big theme of Comic-Con International this year, at least from a comic book perspective (that perspective still exists, dammit!) is the big 75th anniversary of DC Comics’ brooding defender of the rainiest city in the world. Batman has gone through dozens of permutations in his three-quarters of a century and been written by and drawn even more people. A panel on Thursday celebrated the Dark Knight, in his many permutations, and discussed the history and legacy of the character as seen through the eyes of some of the most influential and celebrated creators over the years. In attendance were luminaries Denny O’Neill, Neal Adams, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Jim Lee, Scott Snyder, and Geoff Johns, who all had their own idea about why Batman continues to be arguably the most beloved superhero of them all.

Why is Batman so indelible, lo these 75 years? It seems to come down to two distinct aspects of his character: his mythic nature and his humanity, co-existing within this one man. The first seems to be what lures everyone in. Morrison referred to Batman’s look as employing both Byronic and Satanic elements to become an entity of terror, but we like him because he’s a hero, using the ability to instill fear as an asset to aid “us.” Miller called Batman a modern folk legend, passed down from writer to writer, person to person; Johns said that all comic book heroes are today’s Greek gods, and that Batman stands head and shoulders above them, as their king. It’s the symbol that he creates that he’s the thing the scary things fear.

On the other side, Batman is a merely a man – Bruce Wayne isn’t an alien, nor was he bestowed with magical, mystical, or metaphysical gifts by some greater entity; he saw his parents killed in front of him as a child and wants to get retribution for it ad infinitum. Adams called Batman the person “we would rather be,” adding that he is all of us. He’s a model of a single person becoming the best they could possibly be. He is, as Snyder points out, the symbol for achievement. He’s made his mind and body strong and agile and doesn’t let the pain get to him. He’s the smartest guy in the room, but only because he worked very hard at it.

It’s also his humanity that allows for a writer to create plot more simply. O’Neill reflects that “Superman is a bitch to write for,” because he’s nigh impervious. Batman, on the other hand, is mortal and destructible and hence anything from bullets to falls from buildings to a giant set of rotating blades are perfectly fine for threatening Batman. He’s also very versatile; every writer has his own version of the character and none of them are wrong. All of them are right, in fact, because every writer is, as Adams adds, circling around this character and adding a bit of themselves into it.

And so, ultimately what does the future hold for the Dark Knight, Caped Crusade, or whatever else you’d like to call him? It seems he’s poised to continue his reign over the superhero landscape for a long time to come. He reflects the world we live in and rolls with the changes while still holding on to those core values and beliefs that give the character such appeal. He’s changed before, he’ll change again, and he’ll no doubt keep changing for the foreseeable future. Miller perhaps summed everything up best when he said, “Batman is older than just about any of us in this room…but anyone who says Batman’s future is limited is admitting they’re old.”

]]>http://nerdist.com/75-years-of-the-dark-knight-straight-from-the-creators-themselves/feed/0Comic-Con Trailer Premiere: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN LIVES: WHAT HAPPENED?http://nerdist.com/comic-con-trailer-premiere-the-death-of-superman-lives-what-happened/
http://nerdist.com/comic-con-trailer-premiere-the-death-of-superman-lives-what-happened/#commentsFri, 25 Jul 2014 17:30:47 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=169472The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened?, the fan-funded documentary directed by Metalocalypse and Grimm Fairy Tales’s Jon Schnepp, about the potential Tim Burton Superman movie that never was, Superman Lives, now has a full length trailer. Premiering at San Diego Comic-Con, the trailer features glimpses at interviews with screenwriter Kevin Smith, comic book favorite Grant Morrison and director Tim Burton, as well as test footage featuring Cage that has never seen before by fans.

The documentary, which was the product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, is now in post-production and looking for the final funds to complete the film and release it to the fans who are dying to know what happened to Superman Lives. The breakdown of final costs are detailed on The Death of “Superman Lives” FanBacked page and include things like final shoots, animations and graphics.

I have been excited about this documentary for a long time and am so excited that it’s in the final stages of production. It’s also a huge vote of confidence that Schnepp and his team were not only granted an extensive interview with Tim Burton himself, but were allowed access to Burton’s warehouse, getting to see items that no one else has ever had access to for the last twenty years.

You can view the new trailer here and follow the film on its official Twitter and Facebook accounts for updates. If you are ready to answer the question “What Happened?” you can donate to the project at SupportSupermanLives.com!